208 FISH-CULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 
ery. The decrease in the average catch per trap and man, in the 
yearly earnings, and in the average size of lobsters has kept pace 
with the increase of the fishery; the inshore grounds in many 
places have been nearly depleted, and in some of the deeper areas 
the lobsters are so much scattered that it is no longer profit- 
able to set the traps in trawls. Ifacontinuous and rapid de- 
crease should be proved, what can be done to stop it and insure 
the future prosperity of the fishery? The task of remedying the 
evil will be much more difficult than the proof of its existence, 
and the question is one regarding which we have as yet no defin- 
ite ideas. 
Past legislation has certainly not been very effective, nor can 
any laws avail much until the true character and extent of the 
evil has been determined. Neither are laws beneficial unless 
they can be enforced—an exceedingly difficult task in the case of 
any fishery. 
The question of artificial propagation has been raised, and a 
few unsuccessful attempts have already been made to carry it on. 
But the failures have not been without cause, as we do not yet 
even know the rate of growth of lobsters, or whether they 
require six or a dozen years to attain the adult size, which is 
about ten or twelve inches.. Immediately after hatching they 
swim freely about at the surface of the water, and continue 
their erratic ways of life during most of the first season, after 
which they settle down upon the bottom and assume their future 
habits. 
The first task, therefore, which we suggest for the would-be 
benefactor of the lobster fishery, is a most thorough investiga- 
tion of all points bearing upon the natural history of the species, 
upon the changes which have occurred in the fishery grounds, 
and upon the relations of the total catch for each section to the 
number of fishermen and traps set, and the average size of the 
lobsters taken. 
With the census returns, soon to be published, as a starting 
point, a plan of the work can easily be sketched out, and the fig- 
ures there given may serve as a basis for future calculations. 
