A III erica II Fi'<licries iSociety. r»l 



Woods Hole, one of our trips was to Provincetowii, to \icw t he- 

 successes in lobster culture of the Rhode Island Commission ii; 

 connection with the United States Commission. At that time 

 there was some experimenting going on in thn way of rearing, 

 the same as this gentleman mentioned. Now am 1 to under- 

 stand that this paper brings the lobster rearing up to date? Is 

 that the idea — bringing that same experiment that we saw being 

 conducted at the Wickford up to date? 



Mr. Willard : Yes, that is the idea. 



Mr. Clark : Then I understand it is not very successful yet? 



Mr. Willard : I think considerable progress has been made, 

 as 30,000 were turned out last year, as against one hundred three 

 years ago. 



Mr. Clark : I do not understand that that is 30,000 of the 

 partially grown lobster. 



Mr. Willard : Yes. 



Mr. Ravenel : It is an increase of from one liundred to 

 thirty thousand in three years. The point is io carry them 

 through the moulting to the lobster stage. 



Mr. C. G. Corliss, of Gloucester, Mass. : It seems to me that 

 this experiment depends upon the number of fry used to bring 

 forth this 30,000. That is the meat of the whole thing — of 

 course if they took a million fry and finally succeeded in raising 

 30,000, it is a question if that is a success. Of course they have 

 progressed as far as increasing the number is concerned; but 

 until we know how many they took to raise such number, we will 

 be uncertain as to whether it was really a success or not. 1 

 would like to know how many fry they started witli. 



Mr. Willard: I regret that our specialist on the lohster is 

 not present; but we have showTi a mark of progress in starting 

 in with 100 and arriving at 30,000 in three years, but whether it 

 is really a commercial success at the present time we could not 

 say. We think however, by further experinu^its and l>y im- 

 proved apparatus we can make the number much gn^ater. 



Mr. AV. H. Boardman, of Central Falls, Khodc Island : Dot^s 

 not ^Ir. Mead say in his paper that the increase was from 1 to oO 

 per cent? 



Mr. Willard: Yes. 



Mr. Boardman : Th<'n that certainly is a great increase. 



