SIXTEENTH ANNUAT. MEETING 



^5 



They take from fifteen to thirty-five days to hatch, according 

 to the temperature of the water; the colder the water the longer 

 the time required. When the fry are seven or eight da\'s old, 

 the little fellows will begin eating one another, and hundreds 

 of them can be seen swimming in the tanks, each with a fish in 

 his mouth that seems as large as himself. A small percentage 

 of loss can be put down to this cause. We usually ship 50,000 

 in a twelve-gallon can, and find it necessary to use ice to keep 

 the temperature of the water sufficiently low for them to stand 

 the jcmrney. 



If fifty per cent, of the eggs can be hatched it can be consid- 

 ered very fair success. My opinion is that the general average 

 is lower, altlujugh one case that came under my notice very 

 much exceeded this. In the instance I refer to, there were two 

 small shipping boxes of eggs sent to a liatchery and fully 75 per 

 cent, were dead before leaving the spawning grounds, and the 

 man who took the eggs told me that the rest of them died when 

 put in the jars, and there were no more pike eggs sent to that 

 hatchery that season; yet, on reading the annual report for the 

 same season's operations at that hatchery, I saw that ten millions 

 (jf wall eyed pike fry had been distributed! Men claim that they 

 can hatch 50, 75 and even 90 per cent, of the eggs of certain fish; 

 hut here is a case that calls for special attention — several hun- 

 dred per cent, from dead eggs. Why each Ggg, even if dead, 

 must iiave brought forth twins or triplets, at least. I think it 

 \v(juld be a capital idea for all of us that are engaged in pike 

 culture to get our eggs from that locality in the future, and we 

 should work hard to get very stringent laws passed protecting 

 the locality, so that such a very prolific and peculiar class of fish 

 should not be killed or destroyed. 



There is no doubt that such decepticjn as this injuriously affects 

 the science of fishculture. The people of the country on read- 

 ing or hearing of certain waters being stocked with thousands or 

 millions of fry, as the case may be, naturally look for some bene- 

 ficial result in the near future; and when no such result shows 

 itself, they are inclined to say that artificial propagation of fish 

 is very much (jver-estimated, nor can we blame them. 



During the season just passed we secured for our Miiwaid<ee 



