The Alaska daily empire., 1917-08-10
Prominent Fish Men and a Fish CuIturiSt Leave to Investigate
 a New Plan.
.REVOLUTIONIZE SYSTEM
New Method Will Be Put in Effect Regarding Matching of the
 Fish Eggs

A. J. Sprague, fish culturist who had charge of matching the trout eggs at Thane and who will have charge of the hatchery which is to be installed in Juneau by the South eastern Alaska Fish and Game Club expects to leave on the Humboldt next week for Chilkat, where, in company with F. o. Burkhardt and J. T. Barron, an inspection of Chil- kat Lake and stream will be made to determine the feasibility of in stalling a small hatchery for salmon under a new system.
 In discussing the project this morning Mr Sprague stated that the system will be entirely different from that now followed by salmon hatcheries in Alaska. The system will also determine two things which have been bothering fish men and naturalists for some time. It will determine whether the fish return to the parent stream and also the age of the fish when they do return.
 NcW LIlc OI experiment.
 The hatchery will follow out the the line of experiments which were tried on a small scale at the Trask River hatchery in Oregon several years ago.
 "The present system of matching the salmon and then releasing the small fry has proved itself to be a failure" said MT. Sprague, "be- cause, with the millions and millions of fry released by the big hatcheries in the Ketchikan locality, the re- turns are less than formerly. The Ketchikan fish run has been falling off from year to year until now it is practically nothing.
 "In the experiment which was followed out at Trask River, 25,000 eggs, measured, fertilized and eyed, and about 45 days old. They were placed in wire basket, GOV warden and salmon trout and other enemies of the fry out, and buried in the gravel of the stream, being covered to depth of about a foot and a half.
 "The eggs at the time of burial were about 5 or days from the period and they were left in the basket to prevent them float ing down stream, where they would have made food for the Dolly Var den and salmon trout, which are the worst enemies known to the salmon fry and trout eggs. By placing one-half inch screen over the top of the basket, the eggs were given natural conditions for matching and within 26 days they had all matched and absorbed the food sac.
 Advantage of System
 "The advantages of this system over the present system are: Giving the fry natural matching conditions; produces a more vigorous and heal thy fry and does not rob it of the instinct of self-preservation which so many authorities claim is true of the present system; if planted a short time before matching the young will not be subject to the dread fungi disease which creates so much havoc among the fry; the small fish are required to work their way through the sand and gravel to the top, as they would under natural incubation which increases their strength.
 "Where large number of salmon spawn in streams with limited spawn ing grounds the salmon coming lat CT dig up the sand and gravel, thus disturbing the eggs previously laid and allowing them to float away down stream to be eaten, and thus millions of eggs are destroyed. It has been my experience that sal mon dying on the spawning grouhd deposit a phosphorous slime which causes the fungi growth which is so fatal to the young salmon in the food sac stage, unless the eggs are buried for some distance in the sand.
 From observations made on the Trask, Klamath, Sprague and Will Hanson Rivers in Oregon and the Yes River in Alaska, it has been dem onstrated that the life mission oi a salmon is to die on the spawn ing ground, thus furnishing food fol the young salmon.
 Present System Failure
 "Very little has ever been saiC about the true causes that have de stroyed our salmon, but experience