60 Thirty-Second Annual Meeting 



from one float to another can be coupled with universal joint'^ 

 and sliding shafts. 



It will l)e surprising if better results cannot be obtained in 

 the future bv means of improvements in the apparatus, and 

 through general experience, and I would like to indicate two 

 lines in which improvements should be hoped for. First, in per- 

 fecting the transmission machinery, and second, in protecting 

 the fry from parasites such as diatoms and microscopic fungi. 



Inasmuch as the lobster is, to a considerable degree, a migrat- 

 ing animal, its cultivation by private enterprise will require its 

 confinement till it reaches the market size, and here several new 

 problems present themselves. Can it live in confinement through 

 the 'winter? How long does it require to reach the marketable 

 size? 



The first question has been satisfactorily answered by the ex- 

 periments of the Rhode Island Commission. We have kept ii 

 considerable number of young lobsters through three successive 

 winters, by sinking them in small cars to a depth of about eight 

 feet in water which becomes quite fresh in the spring, and which 

 freezes at the surface in winter. 



The qvu^stion of the rate of growth has not as yet been fully 

 answered. In our experiments the most conspicuous feature of 

 growth is its great variability; at any time after the first few 

 months, lobsters of the same age are, some of them, twice the 

 length of others. The largest specimens one year of age were 

 three inches; two years, six inches; and three years, eight inches. 



The full account of our experiments, with descriptions and 

 pictures of the apparatus, is published in recent reports of the 

 Rhode Island Commission of Inland Fisheries. 



DISCUSSION OF MR. MEAD's PAPER. 



Mr. Titcomb : I do not know whether I understood the wri- 

 ter fully. I wanted to inquire if he stated how many lobsters he 

 used to produce the 3.O00 and 10,000 and 30,000 he speaks of 

 there. 



Mr. Willard : It is not stated. 



Mr. Clark : If I remember rightly, three years ago, when 

 the meetiiiii' of the .\merican Fisheries Society was held at 



