TWENTY-NINTH BIENNIAL REPORT. 39 



law, but the work was carried on under the supervision of the Depart- 

 ment of Fish Culture of the Fish and Game Commission. When the 

 repairs and improvements are completed, Mount Shasta Hatchery will 

 he one of the largest if not the largest trout hatchery in the country, 

 and will have a sufficient capacity to care for all the salmon eggs and 

 resulting fry that can be shipped from the Klamathon station. 



During the fall of 1924, a new spawning house was built to take the 

 place of the old building used for this purpose. The old building was 

 in a bad state of decay and a new one was necessary. The new building 

 is well lighted and convenient in all its arrangements, being a dupli- 

 cate of the old spawning house that had been in use for twenty years. 

 Owing to the number of persons camping and throwing rubbish, and 

 other contaminating matter into the waters of Spring Creek before 

 reaching the hatchery diversion, it was deemed necessary to drive an 

 artesian well near the pumping plant that furnishes the domestic 

 supply to the hatchery cottages and superintendent's residence. At 

 a depth of 42 feet a flow of pure water was struck that flowed con- 

 tinuously 19 inches above the 2^-inch pipe that lined the well. This 

 supply is forced into a tank and used as a domestic supply for all 

 the buildings on the hatchery grounds. 



During 1924 a new shipping can storage house was constructed 

 24 feet by 42 feet. It is made of corrugated iron roof and sides. A 

 steam boiler was installed so that all the cans used at the hatchery can 

 be sterilized by steam under pressure, thus keeping them sanitary and 

 free from bacteria. Consequently when they leave the hatchery loaded 

 with fish, there can be no chance of fish being affected from foul cans 

 or of contracting disease that may cause the death of fish after planting. 



It being necessary to have more room in the hatcheries at the time 

 the salmon fry are swimming up and before they are ready to be 

 deposited in the rearing ponds, three new ponds were built for this 

 purpose during the fall of 1925. They are 40 feet long, 9 feet wide 

 and 30 inches deep. 



The same fall a new roof was placed on the barn, and roads on the 

 hatchery grounds as well as the road leading to the hatchery grounds 

 from the country road, were graveled. 



The stock of brood fish in the ponds have all been in good condition 

 during the last two years, except the eastern brook trout. Approxi- 

 mately 40 per cent of the eastern brook, on coming to maturity, could 

 not be spawned as the eggs in the ovaries only partially developed. 

 The eggs were found to be dead when the fish were opened for dissec- 

 tion though the females remained fat and healthy. The eggs became 

 caked and would not slough or pass from the ovaries, but gradually 

 shrivelled up, forming a mass of closely connected eggs that were not. 

 supplied the proper circulation to alloAV them to ripen. This condi- 

 tion has never happened before in the history of fishcultural opera- 

 tions in this state and we fail to find any mention of a similar condi- 

 tion in any of the pathological reports pertaining to the diseases of 

 fishes. No trouble was experienced until we began to raise brood stock 

 from commercial hatchery eggs that were purchased outside the state. 

 We are of the opinion that this condition may be due to the fact that 

 the majority of the eggs from commercial hatcheries are taken from 

 very young fish and the continual breeding of these immature fish 

 has lowered the vitality of the stock so that this condition is brought 



