FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSIONER. 297 



matter be enacted and a suitable appropriation made with which to carry 

 it into effect. The method of measurement applied to the lobster should 

 be changed. The law at present reads " Lobsters less than nine inches, 

 measured from one extremity to the other, exclusive of claws or feelers, 

 shall not be taken, possessed or sold." This plan is imperfect for the reason 

 that the segments or sections of the lobster may be so pulled apart or 

 stretched as to enable the fisherman to make a lobster which when caught 

 is below the legal limit to be of proper length. The plan now adopted in 

 most of the seaboard States is to measure the rigid body shell alone, which 

 is of one piece and cannot be stretched. 



(4) Abandonment of hatching the lobster. New York has no lobster 

 hatchery, though an attempt is every year made to do what may be done 

 in that respect by the superintendent of the Cold Spring Harbor hatcher} 7 . 

 He is, however, under the disadvantage of not having proper facilities for 

 procuring and hatching the eggs, and under the circumstances, has made 

 an excellent showing. Something more upon this subject will be said 

 elsewhere. 



Salt Water Fish 



It is with great satisfaction that your superintendent has learned, 

 from the State Fish Culturist, that over three hundred and forty-three mil- 

 lion (343,000,000) salt water fish fry were distributed during the year. The 

 fact that the State has no hatchery especially devoted to hatching marine 

 species makes this showing more remarkable. The fry were produced from 

 eggs gathered and hatched at the State hatchery at Cold Spring Harbor, 

 Long Island, time being found for this work in addition to the extensive 

 operations of the hatchery in the production of the eggs, fry and fingerlings, 

 of fresh water species, such as brook trout, rainbow trout, lake trout and 

 silver salmon. The figures of the marine fish fry distribution are as follows: 



Smelt fry 226,000,000 



Winter flatfish fry 109 , 300 , 000 



Lobster fry 7 , 005 , 1 80 



Sea bass fry 792 , 200 



343.097,380 



