REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 7 



years, and has at last overcome these difficulties and has devised a 

 practicable method of rearing lobsters through this critical period in 

 good proportions, and in such numbers as to be, in our opinion, an 

 actual benefit to the lobster industry.* 



The principle, the method, and the plan of the apparatus are new, 

 and essentially different in all respects from those previously used. 

 In a series of eight experiments, in which the fry were counted at the 

 beginning and at the end of the experiments, from 16 to 50 per cent, 

 of the fry in the first stage (not in the second stage, as in Appellof's 

 experiment) were carried through to the required fourth stage. In 

 the experiment which yielded 50 per cent. 1,000 specimens were 

 used; 40 per cent, were carried through in an experiment with 2,500 

 lobsters, and over 20 per cent, in an experiment with 5,000 lobsters 

 kept together in a small enclosure. 



The advantage which has been gained by the accumulation of 

 material and eciuipment, and especially by the accumulation of ex- 

 perience and knowledge of working methods, should be followed up. 

 The work of clam propagation should be carried out on a larger 

 scale; the loljster raising methods and apparatus should be per- 

 fected, and the next steps in lobster propagation, viz., that of prop- 

 erly distributing and protecting lobsters which have been reared 

 through the critical period, should be further investigated; con- 

 tinued investigation should be carried on in respect to the scallop 

 (see Fig. 5), quahaug, soft-shelled crab, red water, methods of fish 

 hatchery, etc. 



One of the most conspicuous needs of our fisheries is a census of 

 the animals and plants which inhabit the waters of the State. We 

 have not at present a complete list of any group of aquatic animals 

 or plants of the Bay, to say nothing of a record of their distribution, 

 abundance, time of arrival and departure, breeding, habits, etc. 



It has been said, with prophetic truth, that the ocean is capable 

 of supplying more food for man than the land, and the rapidl}^ in- 



*Since this was sent to press we have learned that unusually large numbers of small lobsters, 

 under eight inches, have been caught in fish traps and shore seines, and dug along the shore 

 during the past year. 



