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American Fisheries Society. 51 
eyed pike eggs for the Michigan Fish Commission. The reason 
we used the starch was, that Professor Reighard had demon- 
strated that the stirring of the eggs broke the yolk sac, and 
killed the eggs. We would take a female and strip her on the 
beach and fertilize the eggs, and in some cases 100 per cent were 
fertilized, but by putting them into a pail and stirring them he 
would examine them, and say there are only 30 per cent good; 
and the yolk sac burst in the shell. The last season I was on this 
work at Toledo I used the starch method to get rid of stirring 
the eggs; and the eggs were not stirred a particle. The method 
we used was nearly the same as Mr. Downing used, and we had 
about the same apparatus. The man had a big keg with a screen 
near the top, and a pail that would go into the keg and empty; 
then he had a small wooden chopping bowl that set on this pail, 
and his instructions from me were to take not more than one 
large or two small females, and give them plenty of milt and a 
httle water, and they were tipped over into the pail. This pail 
had probably four or five inches of water. After repeating three 
or four times we lowered the pail into the keg, where we had 
put three or four gallons of water with a pound of starch; and 
these eggs were not disturbed at all after being put into the keg; 
they were simply dumped in. When he came to the end of the 
pound net string he turned the water on, as Mr. Downing did, 
inside the keg, and it ran out through the screen, and the starch 
washed off ; he did this until we got there. Then the eggs in this 
keg were hustled on board the steamer and two of us took care 
of them until we got to Toledo. We had twelve men taking eggs. 
As quick as we got them on board the steamer we turned the hose 
on the eggs gently, played on one keg awhile and then another, 
until we got to Toledo; and no man’s hand touched the eggs. 
When we got to Toledo we had an apparatus somewhat similar to 
the apparatus on these fish cars here, with the exception that 
water ran in, instead of air, and this was connected to each keg, 
and the water was turned on; then we went away to our dinner. 
When we got ready to ship they were taken from there and put 
in cans or boxes. In the first lot the first year that I was there 
we found a great many dead eggs, that we thought were injured 
by sudden jarrings. After that we used a spring wagon with 
plenty of straw in the bottom. The eggs were put aboard cars, 
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