60 
crabs destroyed daily from 100 packing houses during the season 
would, if returned to the waters, yield more than 700 tons of 
edible meat. The wholesale market price is 18 cents per pound. 
While the absence of a cull law accounts for a terrible waste, a 
more serious one is the destruction of the egg-bearing (sponge) 
females. It was found at one packing house that the number of 
female crabs received, having reached this stage of development, 
exceeded 20 per cent of the catch. The female crab bearing the 
eggs is of no value to the packer, as the meat is dark. They are 
usually so injured, however, in transportation to the packing house 
that they will not spawn even though returned by the packer to the 
water. The female crab spawns but once in her existence, which 
makes her protection most necessary. The egg-bearing females 
should never be taken. 
During the months of August and September “doublers” (or 
copulating crabs) are plentiful in Maryland waters. The female 
crab, when taken with the male on the trot line, is a soft crab and 
has reached her maturity. Protecting the female at this period is 
practically as essential as protecting the egg-bearing female. This 
crab, after becoming hard, hikes it for the waters near the Capes 
of Virginia and becomes egg-bearing before the following spring. 
The State of Virginia permits winter dredging for crabs in this 
locality. In Maryland we believe, and have the best authorities 
in support of our position, that the gravid females seek the warm 
waters near the Capes to spawn, yet those interested in the in- 
dustry around Hampton, Virginia, the seat of the hard-crab indus- 
try in that State, contend that the only crabs taken during the 
winter in dredges are the “sow-crabs,” the developed female who 
has spawned her once and only time in her existence, and that 
restriction of winter dredging is unnecessary. 
