EXPERIMENTS IN FASTING OF FRY. 
BY CHARLES G. ATKINS OF EAST ORLAND, ME. 
It is my purpose in this paper to give further account of the 
experiments in the initial feeding of fry of which I told the 
Society last year. 
The purpose of those experiments was to test the correctness 
of the opinion, generally held among fish culturists, that it is 
necessary to be very prompt in satisfying the first demands for 
food on the part of the fry of all kinds of salmon and trout, the 
penalty of neglect being the death or irreparable injury of the 
neglected fry, some writers on the subject having gone so far as 
to lay down the rule that there is no safety in the matter short 
of actual anticipation of such demands by offering food to fry a 
good deal before the absorption of the sack. 
I was able to say at the time of the last meeting that, so far 
as could be seen up to the month of July, fry that had called for 
food in May or early in June and had been compelled to wait 
at 
least such treatment had not increased the death rate; that fast- 

for five days had not appeared to suffer in consequence, 
ing for nine or ten days had not in all cases been followed by 
heavier losses; that in the case of the fry of silver salmon, of 
which four lots had fasted respectively for five, ten, fourteen 
and nineteen days, those that fasted the longest suffered the hght- 
est mortality; and that the majority in the four lots of silver 
salmon taken together, from the beginning of the fasting down 
to fifteen days after its close with each lot, averaged little more 
than half as heavy as that of the kindred fry that were promptly 
and constantly fed. 
In the discussion that followed the reading of that paper it 
was suggested by Mr. Talbot that though these fishes survived 
the ordeal of the fast they might have been so stunted by it that 
they would never reach the size that they would otherwise at- 
tain; and I was compelled to acknowledge that there was good 
eround for fearing that such would be the effect. I have now 
evidence in this matter which I am glad to lay before you. 
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