Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1882-04-05
iSournal an6 Courier.
Wednesday Morning, April ). 1882.
sHAD FOR THE EUROPEANS.

Some very good fish have been sent to this
country from Europe, and now it is an
nounced that one of the best fish of this
Countrywide shad-is likely to be introduced
into European waters. The annual meeting
of the American Fish Cultural Association
has been going on in New York for the last
two days, and at one of the sessions Colonel
Mcdonald, United States Fish Commits
soner, gave an interesting statement of ex
periments looking towards the artificial prop
agation of shad for introduction into Eu-
rope. 1t had been supposed, said Mr.. Nc
Donald, that this might be accomplished
by the retardation of embryonic develop
ment. Eggs had been taken from the fish at
a temperature of IS and then kept in water
at temperature of co. for seven and eight
days, and healthy fish Matched. When kept
for longer period, or at a lower tempera-
ture, the fish were invariably unhealthy. The
theory of retardation of embryonic growth
had, therefore, to be abandoned. It had been
proved by experiment that eggs kept in wet
hannels in damp atmosphere at tempera-
ture of 6Oo for 43 hours could be successfully
ing while the eggs were en- route has now been
solved by the use of closed Matching appa-
ratus. This consists simply of a jar of about
five quarts capacity, with two tubes leading
into it. One of these, at the bottom, fur
nishes a constant supply of fresh water, and
the other, at the top, carries off the impure
water. AS this water is forced into and car
ried out of the jar under pressure, and as the
$4,000 eggs which the jar would contain lie
in solid mass at the bottom, the motion of
train or rolling of vessel would not affect
the spawn. With this apparatus, the Colonel
thought shad spawn might be carried to
Europe as safely and successfully as they are
now transported to the rivers of California
Colorado and Texas. The only question that
practical culturists are now required to an
swer is as to their ability to keep supply of
pure water to feed those closed jars while a
vessel is en- route, and this he thought could
be done. 1t has been known to fsh-cultur-
lists for years that the eggs of the salmonidee
could be transported out of the water with
out injury, but not until very recently that
the same thing could be done with the eggs
of the shad. The discovery was the result of
an accident. The fish commission had in
process of transportation load of eggs from
the Potomac spawning grounds to the hatch
ing houses in the Brooklyn navy yard. The
launch having the eggs on board broke down,
and Colonel Mcdonald. bent on saving the
eggs if possible, put them on trays in flannel,
and carried them to the Matching houses. AL
though they had been out of the water for
fifteen hours, they Matched out one of the
best lots of fish the commission had ever
Matched artifcially. This accidental discov-
cry has resulted in great saving in the ex-
pense of artificial propagation, and has made
possible the establishment of central hatch
ing station, at which the government will
hereafter hatch all the impregnated spawn
taken in the Potomac and Susquehanna rivers.
We congratulate the Europeans on the
prospect of picking out shad bones that is
before them. The shad will do them good,
and they will like him.