U9 



attach these boxes one behind the other in a long row, 

 anchor them in the river and fill them with impregnated 

 spawn and the work is done. The continuous motion 

 of the water passing around each egg and holding it 

 suspended aerates it perfectly and makes its hatching a 

 certainty. Hardly one per cent, of healthy eggs fail to 

 hatch, and while the process is going on hardly any care 

 or attention is required. Fish and eels cannot enter the 

 boxes to prey, nor can the eggs be driven out by the 

 water, and lost. 



In the artificial manipulation of shad the parents are 

 taken in seines from their spawning beds. The haul is 

 made at night, at which time only can ripe "fish be found 

 in any considerable number. The captured fish are 

 thrown indiscriminately into a boat and are stripped at 

 once as they die quickly. They are afterwards sold in 

 the markets. The eggs, which are caught in a pan with 

 a little water in it after being allowed to stand for a few 

 minutes until impregnation is complete, which is sig- 

 nified by their swelling in size and reducing the temper- 

 ature of the water some ten degrees, are poured into the 

 hatching boxes and left to themselves. Nothing more 

 is required. In twenty four hours the black eyes of the 

 young fry will be visible through the shell, and in from 

 three to ten days they will be hatched. So rapid, simple 

 and inexpensive is the process of shad culture. There 

 are no flannel screens to be washed and cleaned every 

 day or two as with salmon or trout ; no rows of troughs 

 to be examined laboriously with benumbed hands in 

 winter weather; no weary waiting for months with 

 every hour filled with danger ; no contagious diseases 

 or spreading conferva to be guarded against ; no careful 

 superintendence without which failure threatens ; no par- 

 ticular selection of water or locality. The boxes are merely 



