18 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 
cessful attempts to transplant the same species to the California 
coast have also been made.” 
LOBSLER.. Gull iia: 
BY /S. M.. JOHNSON. 
Your kind invitation to prepare a short article on lobster cul- 
ture was duly received, and I hereby briefly comply with your 
request: 
The true sportsman angler when he carefully releases the 
fingerling trout and returns it to the stream, intuitively recog- 
nizes the true economy of fish-culture. With an application of 
this same law to lobsters, we claim that great good might be 
done. By returning to the grounds all that are immature, and 
placing the limit so as to allow time for reproduction, a constant 
and sufficient supply would be insured, which result, I think, 
can be accomplished in no other way. The merits of this plan 
seem to be very generally understood, but the great difficulty is 
in determining what good has been, or may be, accomplished, 
arises from the fact that the laws of the different States are not 
uniform, and that, moreover, they are often disregarded alto- 
gether; so that no satisfactory knowledge of the benefit derived 
is possible until these difficulties are adjusted. 
There is a plan which, as far as I know, has never been tried 
as a means of protection, and which, if adopted, would effectual- 
ly accomplish this purpose, and it would often serve to over- 
come an objection often raised by the fishermen to the present 
law, namely, that by returning to the grounds the lobsters below 
the required standard, they are obliged to retake them again and 
again. For these, and other reasons, I would respectfully 
submit for the consideration of the Association and all others 
interested, the following: 
That all traps or pots be so constructed that the laths or sticks 
shall. be sufficiently far apart to allow all small lobsters to 
