Aiiwricaii Finite rics Societij 205 



tluorv. .111(1 so nuK-li like the old academic question of the hen 

 and llii' v'j:ix — wliicli comes from which, that it is very puzzlinti'. 

 One thiid\s one way one day and another way another. The ])rac- 

 tical side must lia\e a very stronti' inthience :n deeidin^u' what the 

 lty--ishitnre shall do aliout it. I think it can hardly ho treatc<l cn- 

 tirdv as an academic prohlcm. partly hecansc, alth(tn.uh Dr. Field 

 lias \er\- many intt'restin,i:- statistics — we lunc not snilicient in- 

 foi'niation in re«iard to the ])ro])ortion of the liw^v es^'u' lohsters 

 to all of the egg h)hsters, and many other (juestions of that kind. 



Dr. Field: I would say, Mr. President, that one important 

 question which we have in our department is the enforcement 

 of the law, and there is no law more difficult to enforce than the 

 present lobster law, whether it be 9 inches or 10i/^> inches, 

 so that the suggestion made that the law be transferred to the 

 pot instead of the lobster, is going to be a great step in advance 

 in dealing Avith the Greek and Portuguese fishermen, of whom 

 Dr. Mead speaks and with whom I am very familiar. It is per- 

 fectly feasible to examine the pots, and to pull up the i)0ts and 

 measure them, and see that they have been inspected, where it is 

 aljsolutely impossible to chase a man, and get the short lobsters 

 in his possession. 



Now, in regard to the practical aspect of this, and the effect 

 upon the market of a change in the law, we have been in the 

 market and measured some of the local lobsters and Nova Scotia 

 lobsters exactly as they are found in the Boston market today, 

 and we have compared those with the number that we have to use 

 in order to get exactly the same weight of lobsters if they allowed 

 the taking only of those between nine and ten inches, and we 

 find they have to handle 155 to every 100 at the present time. 

 That would practically be an increase of 55 lobsters in every 

 100 instead of the killing of a large number of lohsters as Dr. 

 Mead has suggested might be possible. 



We ought to say, of course, that we are pleased with the work 

 of Dr. Mead and of the Ehode Island commission and of the 

 United States bureau of fisheries, and very sorry indeed to see 

 them placed in the jiosition of the man who did not take his 

 medicine, so that he was never able to tell what it was that cured 

 him. In short, while we believe that the short lobsters ouaht to 



