162 American Fisheries Society. 



EARLY EXPERIMENTS 



It was soon found that, in moving fish in car load lots, 

 it would be necessary to provide means for aerating the 

 water otherwise than by hand. On the first cars the power 

 used to run the pumps was obtained by connecting a belt 

 with one of the axles but this was very unsatisfactory as the 

 pumps could be run only while the car was in motion. 

 Later, a small boiler was used to furnish power for a water 

 circulating pump but was found to be unsuitable. 



In 1885 the first hatching outfit was placed on Car No. 3 

 and was used en route to the New Orleans Exposition. The 

 hatching of eggs on the distribution cars was carried on 

 for several years with a reasonable degree of success but 

 as the number of regular hatcheries increased, it was found 

 unnecessary to maintain hatching apparatus on the cars and 

 this part of the equipment was gradually eliminated. 



A number of experiments have been made in filtering 

 and refrigerating water used in carrying fish. Filters have 

 been made of gravel and sponge through which water was 

 forced by a pump but they soon became clogged and unfit for 

 use. Car No. 3 was equipped with an air coil made of 1- 

 inch pipe through which water was pumped. The coil was 

 placed in an ice box, the ice being in the center and on top 

 of the coil, but this method of cooling water and air was 

 found to be inefficient in proportion to the amount of ice 

 used. 



PROGRESS OF FISH DISTRIBUTION 



An idea of the progress that has been made in fish dis- 

 tribution may be gained by comparison of Car No. 2 with 

 Car No. 9, one of the new steel coaches. Car No. 2 carried 

 92 milk cans or 9,200 3-inch fish. One of the new steel cars 

 will carry 240 pails or 24,000 3-inch fish. This increased 

 efficiency is brought about by(l) building cars with larger 

 compartments and (2) using the same amount of water and 

 more vessels, thereby exposing more water surface to the 

 air. On the assumption that the present carrying capa- 

 city of one of the steel cars is 100 %, the efficiency of one of 

 the earlier cars was approximately 35%. Twenty-five per 

 cent of the increased efficiency has been brought about by 

 changes in the construction of the cars and 40% by changes 

 in the equipment. Twenty years ago the cost of distributing 

 fish per thousand, based on the Bureau's annual output, was 

 $0,027; during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1923 the cost 

 per thousand fish had been reduced to a little over $0.01. 



