REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. XCIII 
Prof. Ryder regards the development of this fungus as one of the 
most serious obstacles to sturgeon-culture, and, owing to the firm man- 
ner in which the eggs are fastened together, the separation at any time 
of the infested from the good eggs is practically impossible. As a pre- 
vention he suggests the filtering of the water supplied to the hatching 
boxes or its sterilization by means of heat. 
The best source of supply for eggs was found to be the live fish which 
are brought to the Delaware City butchering floats, directly from the 
gill nets. If handled with a slight amount of care, they can be carried 
alive with the spawn in good condition. u Judging from the number of 
live spawning fish brought into Delaware City, Port Penn, and other 
places on the Delaware, there is but little doubt that several millions 
of ova for hatching purposes might be obtained each season by vigorous 
and faithful exploitation of all the sources of supply.” 
Prof. Ryder states his general conclusions with respect to the pos- 
sibilities of sturgeon-culture and the methods to be followed in the 
following words : 
The results which were obtained were to some extent unsatisfactory, owing to 
the difficulty of obtaining an abundance of living ova and the difficulties attending 
their fertilization by artificial means, as well as rearing the embryos. Notwith- 
standing this untoward condition, a number of novel facts were collected and experi- 
ments were carried out which must be of great significance in any further attempts 
at the artificial propagation of these immense fishes. Amongst the most important 
of my results, the observations which I regard as of the greatest practical value is 
the determinatiou by experiment that it is possible to quickly obtain both living 
ova and spermatozoa from recently captured fishes by Caesarean section. The only 
ova which I succeeded in fertilizing were obtained from females of the common 
sturgeon by cutting open the abdomen of the still living fish. Forcing out the ova 
by pressure, as practiced with the shad and salmon, is not feasible in the case of the 
sturgeon, and the removal of the ripe ova from the abdominal cavity of the parent 
fish may be far more expeditiously effected by slitting open the body cavity, in the 
manner usually practiced in dressing the carcass for market. * •* * The success 
which followed the usual methods of fertilization proves conclusively that vast 
numbers of embryos could Jt)e hatched annually from eggs thus obtained and treated. 
The number of millions which could be reared in this way would depend entirely 
upon the number of trained spawn-takers promptly on duty when spawning fish are 
taken by the fishermen, and the extent of the facilities for hatching them and pro- 
tecting them against the attacks of Adilya and Saprolegnia, forms of fungi which 
are found to be most seriously destructive to the life of the ova of the sturgeon in 
moderately quiet waters. 
The Cod (Gadus morrhua). 
The experiments in cod hatching have now been carried on at Wood’s 
Holl a sufficient length of time to test their efficiency, but it is still too 
early to expect the presence there of large fish resulting from these efforts. 
Fortunately abundant evidence is at hand to prove the survival and 
healthy growth of a large percentage of the embryos produced at that 
place. In his annual report for 1883, Prof. Baird, referring to the first 
attempts at the artificial propagation of this species conducted at 
Gloucester, Mass., in the winter of 1878-79, explains that, u The fish 
