CONFERENCE OF GOVERNORS. 47 



method lately being introduced of holding the fry artificially 

 hatched, and rearing them until the fourth or fifth stages, when 

 they go to the bottom, and are able to take care of themselves. We 

 cannot at present enter into other legislative channels, such as 

 laws prohibiting the sale of broken or picked-out lobster meat, the 

 operation of canneries, or the construction of gear, however neces- 

 sary they may be for this fishery. We must devote our attention 

 to those subjects of most vital concern to the fisheries as a whole. 



The most important things to consider first are: (2) the legal 

 length limit; and (4) the hatching and immediate liberation of 

 the young, because they are fundamentally related, have been long 

 on trial, and have entailed great expense. That they have had a 

 fair trial and that they have signally failed all must admit. 



Xo doubt there are many who are ready to aflBrm that the present 

 laws would be good enough, if enforced. Most people are aware 

 that the gauge law has not been rigidly carried out, and that the 

 illegal sale of short lobsters has become a trade of big proportions. 

 I know very well that at many times of the year it is possible to 

 buy short lobsters (said to come from Baltimore) in the markets 

 of Cleveland and of other towns in the great middle west, but 

 nevertheless I cannot share this idea. Both of these measures 

 were bound to fail, and would have failed whether the short lob- 

 sters were destroyed or not. 



To come back to our question. What is the matter with the 

 lobster, or with our means of fostering it? We have committed a 

 series of grave errors in dealing with this fishery, to the chief of 

 which, the gauge law, the others have been contributory. 



First, by legalizing the capture of the large adult animals, 

 above 10% inches in length, we have destroyed the chief egg- 

 producers, upon which the race in this animal, as in every other, 

 must depend. Second, as supporting or contributory causes, some 

 of us now, like others in the past, have entertained false ideas 

 upon the biology of this animal, especially (a) upon the value 

 of the eggs or their rate of survival, that is, the ratio between 

 the eggs and the adults which come from them, and (&) of the 

 true significance to the fisheries of the breeding habits, especially 

 in regard to the time and frequency of spawning and the fosterage 

 or carriage of the eggs. Our practices have been neither logical 

 nor consistent, for, while we have overestimated the amount of 

 gold in the egg, we have killed the goose which lays it. We have 

 thought the eggs so valuable that we have been to great trouble 

 and expense in collecting and afterwards hatching them and com- 



