on 
‘ 
American Fisheries Society. 23 
a small percentage of the eggs is responsible for additional loss 
before the eyeing stage, if not afterwards. 
But if there were’ no improvement in the quality of the 
eggs taken by direct incision of the female, the saving in labor 
and expense by this method strongly commends its general 
adoption in quinnat salmon work. The old plan requires two 
handling ; first, to spawn by hand, and then to kill and cut for 
the purpose of securing the remaining Io to 15% of so-called 
“butchered” eggs. With a well trained crew it requires but 
little more time to take all the eggs at one handling by the 
clean and quick method of direct incision than it does to take the 
“butchered” eggs; thus one handling is entirely cancelled. In 
practice, we found that 100 females are spawned by direct in- 
cision in less than one-third the time required by hand stripping 
followed by cutting. 
Furthermore, the old plan required two crews, one for fish- 
ing and one for spawning, the latter sometimes making a few 
seine hauls near the close of the day. In 1904, working under 
the new plan, the regular fishing crew was entirely dispensed 
with, and a single crew attended to all of the fishing and spawn- 
ing, the daily spawning work being ordinarily cleaned up by 9 
o'clock in the morning. Seven less men were used for this work 
in 1904 than in the preceding year. 
Another considerable item in the line of economy appears in 
the hatching house. To eye the 58,068,000 eggs on a 9714% 
basis means that only one-ninth as many eggs must be picked 
out by hand as though the eyeing percentage were only 79. If 
we concede one-third of the improvement in quality to weather 
conditions or other causes, there is still a heavy balance to the 
credit of the improved plan. 
To sum up: In 1903, under the old plan, sixteen men in 
thirty days caught 4,200 females, from which 27,343,000 eggs 
were taken and 79% eyed. 
Under the improved plan the year following, nine men in 
sixty days caught 9,400 females, from which 58,068,000 eggs 
were taken and 9714% eyed. ; 
The comparison between the two seasons is a fair one, for 
although a sudden flood stopped the work thirty days after the 
