4. -THE ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION OF STURGEON IN SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN, 
GERMANY.* 
EXPERIMENTS ON THE RIVER STOR IN 1877 . 
[From the “ Itzehoer Nachrichten,” No. 87, Itzehoe, July 31, 1887.] 
This new and interesting branch of fish-cultnre has repeatedly been tried in Europe, 
but so far without favorable results. An attempt made in America two years ago, 
however, to hatch sturgeon eggs by artificial means proved successful. Mr. Seth 
Green and Mr. A. Marks of the New York State fish commission caught a male and 
female sturgeon at the mouth of WappiugeEs Creek near New Hamburgh [on the Hud- 
son River] and succeeded in impregnating the eggs of the latter with the milt taken 
from the male fish. From the eggs fertilized on June 7, about 40,000 sturgeon were 
hatched on the 10th and 11th. Another trial made June 12 also proved successful. 
Mr. Marks then took five pans of eggs, and about one hundred hours subsequent to 
impregnation in the neighborhood of 60,000 young sturgeon were hatched, the tem- 
perature of the water being from 67° to 74° Fahrenheit. 
Having learned of these successful experiments, the board of directors of the 
Itzehoe Sturgeon Fishery Association, which is presided over by Mr. Dohrn, the mayor 
of Itzehoe, resolved to make an attempt to propagate the sturgeon artificially iu their 
waters. 
July 2, two fishermen, J. Trede and Kappelan, captured a male and a female stur- 
geon; on the following day the roe was taken from the spawner and after being im- 
pregnated with the milt was put in hatching boxes. At the end of eighty hours the 
embryos had so far developed that they could be seen in the eggs, but on account of the 
great change in the temperature of the water che eggs had been injured, so that the 
embryos, which in the evening had a clear bluish-gray color, assumed a yellowish tint 
the next morning resembling that of a decayed fish. From that time on the eggs pre- 
sented a bad appearance and gradually decayed, the experiment, therefore, terminat- 
ing unfavorably. 
Nevertheless, a second trial was soon after made. In the morning of July 15, a 
female sturgeon, weighing about 150 pounds, was caught, which, when taken from 
the water, began to emit its roe, and was therefore seen to be mature. As much of 
the roe as possible was gently squeezed from the fish, and the remainder taken from 
it by cutting. All the roe was immediately put in pans which had been half filled 
with water from the River Stor, and, while the roe was gently, but continuously, 
stirred, the milt of a male sturgeon, weighing about 50 pounds, was slowly poured 
over it. The milt was obtained by removing the testes from the male fish and sub- 
jecting them to pressure. After the roe had been impregnated, the stirring was con- 
tinued for half an hour, and the water in the pans frequently renewed, in order to 
* Reports translated from the German by Herman Jacobson. 
Bull. V, S. F. 0. 89 6 
81 
