CONFERENCE OF GOVERNORS. 81 



The method of legislation at present has been outlived. We 

 have begun on the principle that we should preserve the young 

 lobsters. I think the method which Dr. Field and Professor Her- 

 rick have so ably presented is at any rate a very plausible, a very 

 attractive, and I may say a very seductive theory, from my point 

 of view. It is true that the lobster egg we must have. It is true 

 also that in forestry we must have the seeds of the pine tree to 

 grow other pine trees. It is equally true, as Professor Herrick 

 has shown in his paper, that we have a great many more lobster 

 eggs than we need. There are 10,000 more lobster eggs than we 

 need, providing we could take care of those eggs; and the ques- 

 tion in my mind simmers down to a more or less academic one 

 of whether the increase cannot be best brought about by taking 

 care of these eggs. If it takes 30,000 eggs to give you one mature 

 lobster, is it not possible to get that mature lobster by taking care 

 of a few of these other eggs which are in other circumstances 

 going to the wall? This, however, is a personal view. I do not 

 wish to commit the other members of our commission to it, but 

 I want to express it; for, while it is perhaps an ungrateful task 

 to dissent from gentlemen who are your friends and for whom 

 you have the greatest respect, yet I feel that in a conference of 

 this kind we should be very frank in exchange of opinions. I 

 think there is an economic fallacy in that way of legislating. 

 We sometimes lose sight of the fact that in saving these egg- 

 producing lobsters we are saving them at a cost of young lobsters 

 which have gone through all these vicissitudes of fortune and have 

 come up to the 9-uich length. Moreover, we have as a problem 

 in lobster culture not only the producing of lobsters, but the pro- 

 ducing of lobsters for the market. If you limit the lobsters going 

 into the market to 9 to 11 inches, you must furnish more lobsters 

 of that length than all lobsters furnished before of all lengths, 

 because it takes more 9-inch lobsters to make a pound. 



I think as a biologist, too, I would like to diiier from my esteemed 

 contemporaries on the platform. I feel that nature herself has 

 shown over and over again that she works sometimes in one way 

 and sometimes in another way. We iind the clam producing up- 

 wards of a million of eggs. The clam is very prolific. The way 

 that nature preserves the species is by throwing out a large number 

 of eggs, and running the chance that some will get through all 

 right. It is the same way with the lobster, to a less extent. But 

 here in our own waters is the dogfish, which in these parts has been 

 quite a menace. The dogfish produces not 30,000 eggs, as the 



