110 REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 



lobster's life — the one in which occurs by far the greatest mortality. 

 That the species has maintained itself without diminution (until the 

 recent inroads by man) in spite of this unprotected period may be 

 ■explained by the enormous productivity of the lobster. A lobster 

 of ordinary size — say 12 inches — produces at one time, according to 

 Herrick, an average of about 20,000 eggs, which are so well protected 

 that practically all of them hatch. This excessive productivity, how- 

 ever, though a potent means of protection to the species, affords no 

 protection to the individuals. 



To one confronting the problem of lobster culture these cardinal 

 facts in the natural history of the lobster point out clearly and exactly 

 the line of attack. We can hardly expect to increase the number 

 of eggs per lobster (and fortunately the number is at any rate very 

 large) nor to improve on the natural method of protecting and hatching 

 the eggs, for up to the time when the eggs are actually hatched there 

 seems to be little loss in nature. It is during that period directly after 

 hatching, when in nature the larvae are neither protected from with- 

 out nor equipped for self-protection, that the great opportunity offers 

 to "surpass the achievements of nature" by protecting these in- 

 dividuals. Not only is this period the weak spot which artificial 

 culture may be expected to strengthen, but the superabundance of 

 larvae normally produced for sacrifice is advantageous because it 

 furnishes readily the material for cultivation. Still another condition 

 particularly favors the cultivation of lobsters: It is that the critical 

 period between the perfectly protected eggs and the well-equipped 

 bottom-living lobsterlings is so short (only two or three weeks). 

 Altogether then, there would seem to be no doubt that the greatest 

 practical results of lobster culture can be obtained by concentrating 

 efforts upon protecting the fry through the critical larval period. 

 This has been quite generally and independently recognized as a fact 

 by those who have studied the lobster problem, and it has been an 

 incentive to the many attempts made by experimenters on both sides 

 of the Atlantic to rear lobsters through the larval stages. It has been, 

 likewise, the incentive to a continuous series of experiments and 



