90 Thirty-ninth Annual Meeting 



requires clonble the fall of water; in other words, use only 

 every other trough in the battery. In the second place, it is a 

 seeming impossibility to separate the dead from the live eggs 

 by siphoning; and third, the fry go to the bottom of the jar 

 instead of rising and making their way into the trough and 

 thence to the tank. 



Mr. Berkhous' experiments were extremely interesting 

 and I regard them as of great value. They do not prove con- 

 clusively that the problem of sturgeon culture has been 

 solved. They do not prove that what was done with the 

 short-nosed sturgeon can be done with the common sturgeon. 

 And even if the same methods can be employed with the com- 

 mon sturgeon, this does not prove that the work can be 

 undertaken on a large scale. The experiments nevertheless 

 seem to be in the right direction. Without doubt short-nosed 

 sturgeon can be carried from year to year in ponds 200 or 

 more feet long and proportionately wide and deep, and eggs 

 can be taken safely in sufficient number to warrant fish cul- 

 tural work. The experiments indicate further that if short- 

 nosed sturgeon can be so carried, the common sturgeon can 

 be carried in larger ponds, its eggs ripened, taken and 

 hatched. 



One point, however, seems to be strongly brought out. 

 Even though the fish can be successfully impounded, in order 

 to insure ripe milt and eggs at the same time, there must be 

 a much larger number of males than females kept in stock. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. Dwight Lydell, Comstock Park, Michigan : Have yoii ever used 

 the Seth Green shad hatching box for hatching sturgeon? 



Mr. Meehan : No, but at the time Mr. Stone and others were engaged 

 in the work they used it. 



Mr. Lydell: Several years ago we carried on some experiments 

 along this line for the Michigan Fish Commission. We had about 80,000 

 eggs, and put them in a Seth Green hatching box and hatched out 70 

 per cent. We found this box very successful for hatching sturgeon. 



Mr. Frank N. Clark : Mr. Meehan says the eggs are very heavy. 

 It might be interesting to know that the sturgeon eggs which tlie 

 United States Fish Commission collected on the Detroit River 25 years 

 ago were very light. 



