American Fisheries Society. 61 
od of spawning while alive. They were fertilized by the dry 
method and picked daily until shipped, with a loss of four per 
cent. 
The experiments demonstrated that it is useless to bleed the 
fish, as practically the same amount of blood followed the incis- 
ion in both cases, and as it was only a few drops no harm could 
result were it all to mingle with the eggs in the pan. The quick- 
est and best method is to kill the fish, take the eggs by incision 
in the thin side walls of the belly an inch or more from the fins, 
and then fertilize by the dry method without using the normal 
salt solution. The washing of the eggs, as described in Experi- 
ment No. 5, proved nothing, as they were not exposed to the 
water over half a minute before fertilizing. 
Heretofore at Baird station all eggs have been taken by hand 
from living fish, the objections to killing before spawning being 
the large loss of eggs resulting from the killing of the partially 
ripe fish. The new method has been found to possess many 
advantages over the old, resulting in the saving of both time and 
labor, and by exercising a little care, it is possible to see that 
only fully ripe fish are put into the pens. It does away entirely 
with the butchering of the females after the regular spawning 
in order to obtain the few remaining eggs—a most unpleasant 
work, as a profusion of blood was caused by the rupture of the 
small blood vessels during the regular spawning, which necess- 
itated frequent washings in the normal salt solution before fer- 
tilization could be accomplished. Another good feature of the 
new method is that it obviates the necessity of a skilled spawn- 
taker. 
The season at Baird had closed before the experiments were 
made, but the new method was adopted exclusively at the Battle 
Creek and Mill Creek stations, and in addition to the time and 
labor saved, the quality of the eggs was improved. 
The dry method of fertilization is used entirely at Baird 
and substations, and as soon as possible after applying the milt 
the eggs are washed. When there is time they are washed until 
the water in the pan shows no trace of milt, but if there is a 
large amount of spawning they are put through several changes 
of water only before being transferred to the spawning buckets, 
and in this case the water in the pan is slightly milky. The 
