The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-01-20

h they would be like after grow
ing up nobody can say. but perhaps
some OF them will be caught at a flu
lure time to afford instruction and
amusement to piscicultural sharps.
Fortunately. the fish commission
people have succeeded in making a
similar cross between the shad and
the river herring and a number of the
liberated hybrids have been suhse-
quently caught. They are extremely
hony fishes. these half breeds. as one
might imagine, much larger than. the
herring and of little value for the ta-
bic FOR the reason mentioned. AS
freaks they are a conspicuous sue
cess. but for commercial arc
worthless.
Now. in trying to obtain such hy-
brids, the method adopted is the same
as tor breeding ordinary fishes. The
roc is pressed from the mother fish in.
TO a tin pan by passing the hand
gently down the belly and the milt
from the male Contained In like man.
ner) Is poured yer the eggs. In this
way the latter are impregnated and
they they are transferred to the glass
IS Kept perpetually flowing by means
o! a etphon arrangement. This partic-
ular experiment of mating the shad
with n herring was performed not
so much for scientific as
through necessity. Made shad Gas oft
en- happens) were scarce and so an at
tempt was made to fertilize the shad
eggs with herring milt. There is ev-
cry reason to suppose that herring
eggs could be fortified in similar
fashion with shad milt. thus accom-.
pishing a cross in the opposite way.
1t would be most interesting to OBJ
serve the difference between the two
crosses but observation of like phe-
nomena IN the case of other species of
fishes points to the conclusion that
the offspring of the herring mother
with a shad for father) would be
much smaller than those of the shad
mother referring for paternity to a
herring. A shad egg is many times
larger than a herring egg. and the
creature Matched from 1t is proper
tfonately bigger to start with and is
bound to attain superior size.
In Lake Erie at the Matching sta
tons, 1t has happened occasionally
ina there was a scarcity of ripe male
wh1tefish and having a number Of ripe
egg laden female on hand, the opera
tlllze n eggs species belonging to
n tribe Of white fishes. but not even
OF the same genus as the true white
nsh. AS a result. the halfbreeds, we'll
formed fishes, weighing about two
POUNDS when full grown, with n sug-
gestton of the long lower Jaw of their
papas. are becoming quite plentiful in
those waters and are seen now and
then in the markets.
Success has been obtained lately in
crossing the brook trout with the SAL
mon in California, a remarkable
achievement certainly. in view Of the
great difference in point Of size. OF
course all species Of trout and of sal
mon belong to the same family of
salmonide, so a hybrid of the kind is
hardly abnormal. In this instance the
cross has been made both ways and
Gas might be expected) the halfbreeds
Matched from salmon eggs reach a
much larger size than those from
trout eggs. The most noteworthy ex-
periments In crossing different species
OF trout (such as lake trout and brook
trout) have been made by DR.. w. ],
Moenkhaus. of Chicago university. He
has evolved some very interesting hy-
brids and next summer will extend the
investigation to various salt water
fishes at the marine natural history
farm which h government m~aintains
at Woods Hole, Mass.
So far the inquiry Is only in an ex-
pertmental stage, but It may be turned
to account in the practical manner
at . future time. It is entirely pos
sibie that in this way new and useful
kinds Of fishes may be produced-as,
for example. by crossing the cod with
the haddock. with the hake. with the
pollock and with the cusk. All of
those five species spawn at the same
time Of the year 30 artificial inter.