84 Thirty-Second Annual Meeting 



haxe no loss from carrying them any distance — whether one day, 

 ten days or two weeks old cuts no figure. 



Mr. Atkins : We are in the habit of taking all our salmon 

 eggs two miles from the station, and we transfer them to the 

 station on wire cloth trays, to be developed. And all we have to 

 do when we get them to the station is to take the whole bunch 

 and set it right into the trough; and I have an idea that that 

 could be done many days afterwards with entire success, if we 

 are very careful to avoid jars. As long as we do not expose them 

 far enough to dry them up and do not jar them, we might carry 

 them almost any distance. 



Mr. Clark mentioned one stage when he did not even take 

 his trays out. We look them over every week, take them out of 

 the trough, and handle them over, tray by tray ; but we are care- 

 ful not to Jar them, and we do not find that we meet with any 

 loss in cou sequence. 



The point I wish to bring out is this, and the experiment that 

 we tried, and I thought that we had it right, is, that in certain 

 stages, with certain kinds of eggs, under certain temperature 

 there is a vital time when we should not disturl) the eggs, i 

 think we can kill them then; at other times I do not. ^ly experi- 

 ence has been that this janing does not affect them either be- 

 fore that stage or after, and I think that a green ogg, (that is, 

 provided it is hardened enough — 1 do not mean an egg that is 

 not hardened, but 1 mean an egg that is hardened) can be 

 moved with impunity. I would move an egg oiu\, two (u- three 

 days old just as freely and with just as much jar as I would an 

 eyed egg. But at the vital stage, as I have stated, this can not 

 be done. I would like to ask Mr. Atkins if lie luis ever tried this 

 experiment with eggs along at different tinu's, picking a tray out 

 and jouncing it in the water to clean it, as hard as he could ? 



Mr. Atkins : Wo have tried experiments similar to that. 



Mr. Clark : Did you ever have a case like tliis: Take a tray 

 of eggs, jounce it and pretty nearly every vgg will turn white 

 within a very few minutes? 



A. Yes. 



Q. You do not think that those eggs were all unfertile eggs, 

 do you ? 



A. Oh, by no means — they were killed by the jar. 



