50 REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 
for the lobsters to go into deep water during the winter, and this 
fact brightens the prospect of propagating lobsters in our Bay, 
either within artificial enclosures or free. 
The second question—what is the rate of growth of the lobster 
up to the legitimate length for commerce ?—is one which is very 
often asked. The effect of the enforcement of the laws prohibit- 
ing the capture of short lobsters depends, of course, upon the 
rapidity with which lobsters reach maturity. Although the ques- 
tion cannot at present be answered definitely, the experiments at 
Wickford have furnished considerable data in regard to it. They 
show that the rate of growth varies enormously in different indi- 
viduals reared in the same car, under apparently the same condi- 
tions. On September 15, 19600, when the lobsters caught that year 
were about three months old, the average length was a little less 
than one and a half inches. The larger specimens were about one 
and three-quarters inches. In November, 1901, when they were 
about one year and five months of age, the largest measured about 
five inches, and the smallest not over two and three-quarters 
inches. And yet both large and small specimens were in healthy 
condition. The question at once arises—how do we know the rate 
of growth in the cars fairly represents the rate in the free state of 
nature? The healthy condition of many animals and plants whose 
normal growth is known, which have been purposely or accident- 
ally reared in the cars, indicates that at least many of the condi- 
tions would resemble closely the natural conditions. But the 
more direct evidence is the following: A number of lobsters 
caught at Wood’s Hole in small traps in the middle of the summer 
were not larger than the average of our lobsters when one year 
old. The ones which were caught must have been at least one 
year old, inasmuch as the eggs are hatched only in the early sum- 
mer, and these were altogether too large for the crop of that year. 
It is certain, therefore, that lobsters reared in the cars were, at the 
end of the year, as large as many of those which had grown in 
their natural environments. The experiments in rearing lobsters, 
therefore, give a fair idea of the rate of growth during the first 
