PROGRESS AND EXPERIMENTS IN FISH CULTURE 
IN THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES DURING 
THE FISCAL YEAR 1906. 
BY JOHN W. TITCOMB. 
Experiments in the use of a salt solution for picking eggs by 
the *O’Malley process were continued at the Baker Lake and 
Baird stations and at the Bureau’s laboratory in Washington, 
with the following results : 
Superintendent O’Malley of the Baker Lake station reports 
that the solution was not used in the blueback salmon work, as 
the loss on this species was too small to warrant it. It was quite 
generally used in picking eggs of the silver salmon at both Baker 
Lake and the Birdsview substation, and for removing dead eggs 
of the steelhead trout at Birdsview the solution was depended 
upon entirely. It was found that the solution was in the best 
working condition when the specific gravity scale registered 1.076 
With this solution nearly all the bad eggs floated long enough to 
be removed and all, or nearly all, of the balance could be picked 
by returning them to fresh water and putting them through the 
solution on the following day. As a rule the second application 
was not necessary because only a few bad eggs remained and these 
were picked out by hand in a few minutes. At the Birdsview 
substation the loss on the eggs ran as high as ten per cent. and 
the use of the solution resulted in a great saving of labor. 
At the Baird-station the use of the solution in picking eggs 
of the chinook salmon did not prove satisfactory but at the Bat- 
tle Creek substation, where there was an unusual loss of eggs due 
to muddy water, the solution was used with most satisfactory 
results. The account of Superintendent Lambson’s experiments 
is given as follows: 
“Unfortunately orders to experiment with the solution were 
not received until the eggs at Baird had been eyed and picked 
ready for shipment. In the experiment of December 29 a small 
*Salt Solution as an Aid to Fish Culture, by Henry O’Malley. Trans- 
actions of the American Fisheries for 1905. 
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