138 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Commission of Fish and Fisheries, just published, 

 Commissioner G. M. Bowers states, " Our leading fishery 

 product, the oyster, worth about $14,000,000 annually, is 

 readily susceptible of increase by methods of cultivation, 

 and each season shows a larger proportion of the market- 

 able output taken from planted grounds, thus insuring a 

 permanent and increasing supply." He states further 

 that while the natural supply of oysters is surely becoming 

 exhausted, the areas of the sea-bottom which are being 

 artificially cultivated are becoming more and more pro- 

 ductive, and certain States which have adopted " advanced 

 cultural methods " are " reaping important pecuniary 

 returns." 



Then again, " There is unmistakable evidence of an 

 increased abundance of Cod in the inshore waters along 

 the entire coast from Maine to j\ T ew Jersey. This may, 

 without hesitation, be attributed principally to the work 

 of artificial propagation centering at the stations of the 

 Commission at Gloucester and Woods Hole." 



The Commissioner urges that new work should be 

 undertaken for increasing the lobster supply by artificial 

 propagation. He states : — " During the past five years 

 over 500,000,000 young lobsters have been artificially 

 hatched by the Commission and planted on the East 

 Coast. As practically all the eggs from which these were 

 produced would have been destroyed had not the Com- 

 mission purchased the egg-bearing adults from the fisher- 

 men, it can hardly be doubted that these operations have 

 had a decided influence on the supply, but the}- have not 

 as yet seemed to arrest the decline, in the face of over- 

 fishing and the destruction of short lobsters and brood 

 lobsters carrying eggs." I have had an interesting letter 

 from Professor H. C. Bumpus, who has charge of the 

 work at Woods Hole, telling of the details of the methods 



