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Thirty-fourth Annual Meeting. 
rather than skill is necessary at this stage. The eggs are then 
fertilized in the usual manner, a number of males having been 
thrown out on the platform a sufficient length of time to allow 
them to become exhausted, and they may be easily handled. The 
egg mixer stirs the mass in the pan with his bare hands and the 
pan is then transferred at once to the washers. The eggs are 
cleansed immediately and turned into buckets, which are placed 
on an independent platform to prevent loss or injury through 
vibration or concussion during the extremely delicate stage of 
adhesion and separation, or until they are fully hardened. 
For a number of years past, up to and including the season 
of 1903, it has been the practice at the Battle Creek station to 
return all females as they are stripped to a separate pen; then, 
after the day’s stripping is done, throw them all out and kill 
and open them to secure the ro to 15% of eggs that remain 
after stripping or that cannot be obtained by pressure. The 
eggs taken by this secondary process, designated by hatchery 
employes as “butchered eggs,” are not equal in quality to those 
stripped, though nearly so, and are well worth saving. The 
heavy pressure exerted on the vital organs of the fish during 
the process of stripping releases a considerable quantity of blood 
and foreign matter, which mixes with the eggs and necessitates 
the time and trouble of washing them several times in a normal 
salt solution. 
Fishing and spawning operations at the Battle Creek station 
were carried on during the season of 1903 as above outlined. 
During the season of 1904 the fish were caught in the same 
manner as in 1903 and preceding years, but a radical change in 
one important point of spawning the fish was decided upon. 
Instead of forcing the bulk of the eggs by main strength and 
securing the remainder by opening the fish, they were taken 
by the simple method of incision and gravity. The spawning 
crew is the same as under the old method, with the exception 
that one man, the head-holder, is entirely dispensed with. The 
female is dipped up as before, grasped by the tail-holder and 
laid on the floor. Immediately the man who occupied the rela- 
tive position of spawn-taker in the old method, strikes a sharp 
blow on the back of the head of the fish with a hammer, causing 
instant death. The tail-holder then releases his hold and inserts 
