REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 135 



It would be safe to judge that, even with well enforced and uni- 

 form laws in the various states, the abundance of lobsters would 

 not be sufficient to keep pace with the increased demands of the 

 market. Some means of artificial propagation must be resorted to. 



B. ARTIFICIAL HATCHING AT THE STATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES 

 BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



As artificial hatching had been successful in the case of fishes, it 

 was naturally the first method to be tried with lobsters. When the 

 lobsters are received at these stations, the eggs are scraped off and 

 placed in jars to hatch. The MacDonald jar, well known through 

 its use in the hatching of shad, has been, till quite recently, the one 

 made use of, and has been quite successful, only a small percentage 

 of eggs failing to hatch. Within the past two years the station at 

 Woods Hole has used, with good results, the Downing jar instead 

 of the MacDonald. 



It was, however, pointed out long ago that few, perhaps not over 

 1 in 1,000, of the fry thus hatched ever reached the fourth stage. 

 Furthermore, hatching the eggs artificially possesses no advantage 

 over the natural method. It is safe to say that the egg lobster 

 hatches practically all the eggs that will hatch. No artificial method 

 can do as well. Even though the hatching can be perfected to such 

 an extent that the percentage very closely approximates the natural 

 method, there will be a great mortality before the fry can be liberated. 

 This would not occur in the natural state, because the eggs of a lobster 

 do not all hatch at one time, and consequently, in moving about over 

 the bottom, the egg lobster would scatter its fry over a wdder area. 

 Furthermore, when the fry are liberated from the artificial hatchery, 

 the cloud which results from pouring out the thousands of larvae 

 must undoubtedly attact the attention of fishes, while the few 

 which would hatch at one time from the natural method might 

 escape notice. 



Perhaps the principal thing which can be said in favor of artificial 



