16 REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 



point of view of the others. The unanimous opinion of those present 

 was expressed in the form of resolutions upon tlie general advisability 

 of certain methods of procedure. The method of measuring lobsters 

 and the licensing of lobster fishermen advocated in the act now under 

 your consideration was approved by this conference. Also, upon 

 motion of a Commissioner of another State, the conference formally 

 resolved to approve of the method of lobster propagation worked out 

 and practiced by the Rhode Island Commissioners at Wickford. 

 Your Commissioners have been fortunate in the cordial official and 

 personal relations with the Commissioners of our near neighbor, 

 Connecticut, as well as with Massachusetts and Maine. 



PROPAGATION OF LOBSTERS. 



The efforts of your Commissioners at the experiment station at 

 Wickford have been mainly concentrated upon the rearing of lobsters 

 and the further improvement of the methods. The reasons for this 

 peculiar method of lobster propagation and the development of the 

 method were fully stated in the report of last year and need not 

 here be repeated. During the year many improvements have been 

 incorporated into the apparatus and method, and the method, has 

 been tested for its adaptability to the hatching and rearing of young 

 fishes as well as of lobsters. The success in both directions has been 

 most gratifying. The output of lobsters reared to the "bottom 

 stage" and liberated in the water of various parts of the Bay was 

 greater than ever before. 



The lobster-propagation experiments at our Wickford plant were 

 undertaken as a continuation of earlier experiments begun at Woods 

 Hole by the United States Bureau of Fisheries, and though the two 

 years' preliminary work at Woods Hole were not productive of actual 

 results, they were important in clearing up many fallacies, and the 

 present operations of your Commission at Wickford belong to this 

 long-continued series of systematic experiments, which completed its 

 tenth year with the conclusion of last summer's work. The figures 



