26 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 
The salmon work on the Pacific coast was unusually successful. At 
Baird, Cal., all previous records were exceeded, the total output, 
including that of the auxiliary stations, being 66,948,484 eggs and fry. 
Even more eges might have been collected had it been possible to 
secure sufficient men to do the work. The results at Clackamas, 
Oreg., and its substations likewise exceeded those of all previous 
years, and the output of Baker Lake station, in Washington, with its 
substation at Birdsview, was more than double that of any year in its 
history. The Baker Lake station is the only one where the blueback 
salmon can be propagated. 
A marked change in sentiment in regard to the artificial propagation 
of salmon is noted among the Pacific coast salmon fishermen and pack- 
ers, who are reluctantly yielding their prejudice, and it is interesting 
to note that fishermen who refuse to acknowledge the beneficial effects 
of the work are frequently found basing their plans upon the run of 
fish expected as the result of certain plants made from the Jhatcheries. 
It appears that a few years ago they depended very largely upon the 
July run as the mainstay of their business, the August run furnishing 
a flabby and inferior fish. In the past two years there has been a small 
July run, and the increasing run through August and into September 
has been of the same quality as were the fish which formerly were 
taken in July. The fishermen, therefore, believe that the change has 
been brought about by artificial propagation, and go into considerable 
detail to follow out their reasoning. 
The striped bass work, taken up experimentally during the fiscal 
year 1903 at Weldon, N. C., with such encouraging results, was con- 
ducted on a much larger scale and with sufficient success to warrant 
extending the field of operations, if it is possible to find places where 
spawning fish can be obtained in sufficient numbers. For the purpose 
of collecting eggs from fish caught by local fishermen, 9 field camps 
were established along the banks of the Roanoke River between 
Roanoke Rapids and Halifax, N. C., a distance of nearly 20 miles. 
Although the run of fish is said to have been several times smaller 
than was ever before known, the results were most satisfactory, a total 
of 13,683,000 eges being taken and yielding 7,219,000 fry. The out- 
put of the station was not as large as was anticipated, there being a 
loss of fry due to the fact that certain features of the hatching appa- 
ratus were special and not fully perfected when the operations began. 
The defects were remedied as soon as discovered, however, and another 
season no such loss will occur. 
The output of Atlantic salmon depends very largely upon the amount 
of money invested in adult fish, within the limits of the market supply. 
At the Craig Brook station in Maine the salmon obtained by purchase 
from the owners of the various weirs in the towns of Verona and 
Penobscot during the preceding June and retained until ripe produced 
