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sale was 104 inches, and the average weight two pounds. Ten years ago the 
average length was 13 inches and the weight three and one-half to four pounds. 
There are thirty-six factories on the coast of Maine where lobsters, sardines, 
herrings and mackerels are packed. 
When it is remembered that the eggs which we get 
would be sent to market, boiled with the lobsters and 
thrown away with the shells, it will be seen what may be 
done in lobster culture with proper facilities. The lobster 
is easier to catch than a rabbit, for it has less sense, and 
when it sees a lobster pot with its bait, it seems to have 
found a haven of rest—and it has. 
The decrease of the number of lobsters from Newfound- 
land to New Jersey, has been accompanied by a decrease 
in size, and a corresponding increase in price per pound. 
In proof of this I will again quote from the Scientific 
AMeTICAN : 
The depletion of the lobster fisheries has been especially noticeable in Can- 
ada. The report of 1888 showed a decrease in the value of exports of $350,- 
000, as compared with the previous year, although there had been an advance 
in the price of 25 per cent. The value of the Canadian lobster fishery in 1888 
was $1,483,388 ; in 1886, $2,638,394 ; in 1885, $2,613,731. 
Could figures speak plainer than these ? 
Up to June 11, this year, we have planted 85,350 young 
lobsters, and have on hand 510,000 eggs.* We cannot 
keep the young many days, because they are cannibals, and 
as they moult about three times in the first ten days and 
are then soft, their brethren devour them. I have fed 
them crab and lobster meat, clams and beef, with the hope 
of bribing them to refrain from eating their fellows, but 
did not succeed. They are persistent cannibals and must 
be put out at a few days old on rocky bottom, where there 
are always hiding places for a soft lobster to remain until 
his skin hardens into a new and larger shell. 
*The plant for the year 1893, was 176,945. Most of the late eggs did not hatch.—F. M. 
