82 Thirty-fourth Annual Meeting. 
DISCUSSION. 
President: Perhaps there are some gentlemen here who have 
had experience in the same line, and who would like to make 
some remarks on the question. We should be glad to hear from 
them if they have. 
Mr. Titcomb: How do you determine the actual number of 
days that have passed, so as to know when to begin reckoning 
the period of testing and feeding ? 
Mr. Atkins: We carefully watched the fish, and whenever 
the general lot was ready to feed then we reckoned that the 
fasting began. For instance, the control lots were taken out 
of the same original lots as the fasters, so they were all 
originally the same lot of eggs. One section would be set out 
to be fed and another to fast. Those that were set out to be 
fed would be tried carefully, and the regular feeding begun the 
imoment they began to take food, and from that time on we 
began to take our records. 
Mr. Clark: These accurate experiments noted down are very 
important. If conclusive, we need not hurry out our fry, as 
I have done for many years, for | have always made it a point 
to distribute fry before the sac was entirely gone. We were 
afraid that otherwise the fish would begin to starve before they 
found their natural food. At the present time most of the peo- 
ple distributing fish go on that plan: they try to get them out 
as fry before the sae is entirely gone, because they are afraid that 
otherwise the fish will starve. But, Mr. Atkins, even with our 
feeding as we do now, that is, putting our fish in the feeding 
trough before the sac is gone, we still find from two per 
cent to five or ten per cent that starve and drift down to the 
screen. Now, do you think that they are starving, or are they 
simply weak fish? Did you make a note in your experiments 
as to any such weak fish ? 
Mr. Atkins: While the lost are all recorded, although I 
did not personally look into the trough to see whether the fish 
were up at the head of the trough, or down at the foot, and did 
not ask any questions about it, I presume, as is usually the case, 
that most of the dead fish were found at the lower end of the 
