76 



COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE PROPAGATION OF LOBSTERS AT THE WICKFORD 

 EXPERIMENT STATION. 



The lobster rearing at Wickford this past season, 1910, has been in 

 many ways the most successful that your Commission has ever had. 

 The season opened with the hatching of a few eggs on May 20, and 

 the main part of the season closed on August 15. However, a few 

 lobsters, with ripe eggs, were obtained as late as September 1st, and 

 necessitated the running of the plant a number of days the first part 

 of September. As a brief statement of the results of lobster rearing 

 it may be said that over a half million lobsters (511,274 by actual 

 count) were reared to the fourth stage from a total of 1,500 egg 

 lobsters, many of which had very few eggs when received. Further 

 more, 28,372 were reared to the fifth and sixth stages. 



By reference to the accompanying table it will be seen that the 

 best previous year was 1908, when 322,672 were reared: 



Total Number of Fourth and Fifth Stage Lobsters Reared Each Year Since 1900. 



1900 



1901 



1902 



1903 



1904 



1905 



1906 



1907 



1908 



1909 



1910 



Total 



63,553 



