American Fisheries Society 107 



man named Lovett near Tullytown, yielded 105,000 eggs. The 

 remainder were gathered from gillers, most of whom fertilized 

 the eggs themselves and brought them to the hatchery thus gain- 

 ing the additional pay per million eggs. The heaviest day's 

 take was 387,000 on June 18, from four nets, one net yielding 

 154,000, the department of fisheries' own net 100,030, a third 

 net 91,000 and a fourth net 42,000. 



There were doubtless a number of eggs lost through the in- 

 difference of gillers who operated above Delanco and l)elow 

 Holmesburg. Judging by the take from the gillers between 

 Delanco and Holmesburg about 2,000,000 eggs were thus lost. 

 About 203,000 eggs were sent up from the Bay near Salem, 

 but they were worthless. All the eggs taken were remarkably 

 good until June 19, with few exceptions. In some instances all 

 the eggs were fertilized excepting the ends and the average 

 hatched was a good 90 per cent, with the exception of a few shad 

 that were experimented with by the Department in the hope of 

 augmenting the supply Toy means described later. 



The average period of hatching was seven days throughout 

 the season. In a few instances when the temperature of the 

 water rose rapidly in the hatching house, incubation period was 

 only three days. I should explain at this point that the water 

 used in the hatching house was not taken from the river but 

 from a pond supplied by a small stream which flows through the 

 hatchery grounds. Ordinarily this water had a lower tempera- 

 ture than the river water, but naturally was subject to more 

 rapid rise. 



A noticeable feature in the work in 1907 was the great in- 

 crease in the number of shad which entered the river. Fisher- 

 men, as far as 1 can learn, without exception, declared that more 

 fish had been caught per net than in any single year since 1900. 

 There were, however, less shore nets operated this year than in 

 any previous year since 1900, excepting 1906. Although there 

 were fully as many gill nets in certain parts of the river the 

 fishermen combined and as a consequence notwithstanding the 

 greater catch, prices ruled much higher than in former years 

 even exceeding those of 1906. As a result nearly all the fisher- 

 men made money. One small shore fishery cleaned up over 



