DISCUSSION. 
_ The PresipentT. Is there approval or objection to the measure that has been sug- 
gested? 
Mr. Henry T. Root (Rhode Island). I was going to say, Mr. President, I hoped that 
the president would answer that question. I will say, however, while I am on my 
feet, that in Rhode Island the increase of lobsters has been amazing within the last 
three years. We lay it wholly to protection. We are enforcing the laws thoroughly. 
We put men in prison; we fine them hundreds of dollars; and we have got them now 
so that the fishermen are with us. Our laws are enforced, and the small lobsters are not 
put on the market. We save the egg lobsters and get more than we want by paying 
for them. 
When we first started in the lobster business it was difficult for us to get 80 to 100 
egg lobsters. This year we had no trouble in getting several thousand; last year we 
got more than we could begin to handle, simply paying the fishermen a little more than 
market price for egg lobsters. We save them in that way; we strip them, put them 
back in the water, and they go on; and in two years more, if the fishermen do not get 
them, we will have more egg lobsters—the same ones. 
This method of Doctor Field’s sounds very plausible, but with all his arguments 
the Rhode Island commission has not been able to give it their indorsement. I think 
thorough protection will increase lobster production, as it has in our waters of Narra- 
gansett Bay, where we got last year, in that little bay, over 1,000,000 pounds of lobsters. 
This year we should get many more; and the fishermen are getting rich in the short 
time they have to catch them. One man on Block Island made alone $1,300 catching 
lobsters in the open season. We feel that we are doing great work there. I wish 
that Doctor Mead was here. And, furthermore, I would like to say, while I am on 
my feet, the whole inception of our industry was inaugurated by President Bumpus. 
The PrEesIpDENT. The figures that Mr. Root has mentioned are really very striking, 
both to us of this country and to our foreign friends; and when I tell the visiting 
delegates that this summer I have been paying 25 cents per pound for lobsters, and 
state the total amount of lobster meat taken in the lower part of Narragansett Bay, 
which is a small bay (the lobsters do not get very far up the bay of our smallest state), 
you have a sum of money coming in to the poor fishermen there that is really very 
considerable; those figures once more, Mr. Root? It was how many? 
Mr. Roor. One million pounds last year. This year it will be a good deal less. 
The PRESIDENT. It was 1,000,000 pounds. This makes $250,000 that has come 
into the pockets of fishermen. There are only a few lobster fishermen in Narragan- 
sett Bay. 
If you will permit the chair to comment a little further, I would say that I believe 
that the large catch of lobsters in Narragansett Bay at the present time is the direct 
result of the efforts of Doctor Mead and his associates on the Rhode Island commission 
in their methods of hatching the lobster during the first few stages of its development. 
You all know how the young lobster first hatches from the egg and swims upon the 
surface, a perfectly helpless, pelagic animal. After it has reached the stage of its 
fourth moult it is, psychologically, itself; it is no longer timid, but it becomes pugna- 
cious. It is no longer a helpless and free-swimming animal. It settles to the bottom, 
and it is pretty well able to look out for itself. Now, what the Rhode Island com- 
mission has attempted is to keep the lobsters confined until the young lobsters have 
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