174 Fortieth Annual Meeting 



The question which comes to us after seeing the com- 

 mercial end of the business is whether eggs from first-class 

 yearlings are not better than from second-class two-year 

 olds. My own experience in keeping a good lot of trout 

 over the second year showed me that better eggs were pro- 

 duced and also that money was lost by so doing. 



I at one time had orders amounting to half a million 

 eggs which I could not fill. The buyers demanded first- 

 class eggs and nothing else. I took a little chance on my 

 own judgment of good eggs and purchased half a million 

 yearling eggs for $175 and shipped them out with a 

 guarantee that they would be satisfactory in every way. I 

 received $250 for them and my customers were very well 

 pleased with the eggs they received. 



Another matter that should receive more attention is the 

 diseases of fish. These hatcheries are crowded to their 

 fullest capacity and furnish an ideal spot for diseases of all 

 kinds. There is practically no inspection of fish to prevent 

 the sale of those affected with fungus, tumors, gill disease, 

 etc. It may be true that cancerous fish cannot transmit the 

 disease to human beings, but I personally do not care to eat 

 them. Is it not reasonable to suppose that fry hatched 

 from eggs from such fish will at least be more subject to 

 disease than otherwise? Oftentimes an epidemic breaks 

 out among our brood stock which might be traced back to 

 a shipment of eggs. 



One thing we should all do, and that is to encourage the 

 private hatchery all we can. They supply the market with 

 a fish which could otherwise rarely be obtained. To be 

 sure many of the choice "speckled beauties" which reach 

 the table are "German browns," but if the customer does 

 not know the difference what does it matter? They pro- 

 vide us all with a good supply of eggs for hatching, and 

 they take the risk in carrying over the stock. I ordered for 

 Minnesota this season four million, without which we would 

 have been practically out of business. As the head of the 

 game and fish commission of one of our leading states put 



