Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-04-16
loBSTERS AND CRABS.
ereseing Facts About the Creatures Thai
carry Their Jaws at Arms

larry Their Jaws at Arms Length
once upon a time said an exnert in
"aeCers crustacean, ''there were crabs
anu IoDsters In existence for which the
hooern fisherman would have gone a
hunting with the most approved
weapons and caution. For examnIe
IN times antediluvian there vyas iob'
e'er winch had body eight feet long
and could stretch twelve feet WITH ;+s
iorinlda Die arms. Positive knowledge
OF this giant of long ago is conveyed nv
SeoioglcaI research. 1t must have con-
o'. meat enough to make salad for
regiment of soldiers. In those DAYS
OF long ago everything grew to enormons
dimensions, whether animal or yepe-
Iaoie' frogs were big and active
.nough TO leap at one hop from the
treasury building to the capitol, and
othef creatures. particularly those of a
obstructive sort. were in proportion
only few little specimens are left
10 Illustrate the giant crustacean forms
Oh mat ancient epoch. 1t is known how
craps and Holsters are Matched from
eggs resembling upon birth nothing so
much as the animalculaa shown by the
microscope in drop of ditch wafer.
1hey are as much unlike the shellfish
they are to become in natural life as a
grub is unlike butterfly. In the case
OF the crab the egg clusters are attached
beneath the animal after extrusion.
WhlIe with the lobster thew become
fastened to the tail, which by its fam
nlng motion increases the stream of
oXygenated air through and among the
Ova.
From the eggs of the lobster are
Matched creatures not in the least re-
sembllng their parents-little fellows
That swim with feather-liae locomotive
organs near the surface of the wa
ter At the end of six weeks
they develop legs (unless, as is
highly probable, they have previously
been devoured by fishes or other
enemles), becoming thereupon small
Holsters of familiar shape Having
reached this stage of growth, the young
Holsters become walking animals, and
sinking to the bottom, immed iately
seek hiding places TO protect them from
their foes
THE first experiments in the adapta-
ton of knowledge ON this subject to the
artificial propagation of Holsters were
made simply in glass jars with sea
water that was changed daily. Even
under these primitive conditions the
newly-hatched fry thrived and grew to
be of some size and healthy. Anyone
who desires to rear Holsters by hand
can accomplish the purpose most quick
ly by keeping the spawn bearing fe-
males in suitable ponds or tanks until
the young come out. In raising the
animals on a large scale, however
it would be best to separate the
eggs from the lobster and spread them
upon trays, allowing the water to per
colate among them, as is done with sal
mon eggs BY this method much
trouble would be avoided, as well as
the expense of feeding the adult hen
Holsters.
''There is no reason apparent where
fore the same success should not be OBJ
tanned with Holsters as has been
achieved with salmon, which have been
made to swarm once more by myriads
in streams depopulated by imprudent
fishing. Already the Holsters on the
North Atlantic coast are rapidly vanish
ing, and, unless measures are soon
taken for supplying their place by arti-
fetal propagation, there will be none
left. Apparently, however, it will be
entirely practica BILE to turn out upon
the depleted grounds many millions of
young Holsters yearly as soon as
proper plants for this objec t
have been established. One thing in
favor of lobster raising, as to cheap
ness, is that they prefer food that is
partially decomposed, and the waste
food of the towns. now thrown away,
might be most usefully employed by
the lobster hatcheries. Stale fish is
esteemed by Holsters an especial deli
cacy.
For the purpose of Il lobster farm
rocky ground should be chosen, because
that is their natural haunt and there
they find suitable places to hide. In
asmuch as they do not walk abroad
very much, but are addicted rather tc
adopt a home and keep it except wher
making excursions in search of food
the water farmer who sows the pastur,
lands of the sea with crop of lobster,
may reasonably hope in time to reap the
result of his labors. There are no lob
sters on the Pacific coast, and the
effects so far made to carry them acrOs:
the continent for transplantation have
tailed Cn1cHN because the CREATURES
have died on the way.
There are many curious points abou
crabs and Holsters. Everyone of eithel
genus is provided with a big claw fO1
crushing and a small claw adapted by
its shape for cutting as scissors do
With these two claws they tear the
food they capture into fragments anC
feed themselves literally from hand t
mouth But there is every reason t.
suppose that the claws are intended
quite as much for fighting as for eating
purposes. inaSmuch as such powerful
hands are not needed for devouring the
soft food they prefer. Crabs particu
larry are fighting animals, in fact, they
will fight anything. l have seen a cral
in conflict with a lobster catch the lat
ter over the fore part of the head
where the she'll is hardest. and crush i
in by one effort. And it rather bears ont
my idea that the claws of these creature:
are particularly weapons of war, that
the moment one of them receive severe
injury in claw it drops off by volun
tary amputation. severing its connec
ton with the body at the shoulder by
an net of its own will. 1t seems to me
that if the claw were necessary fOl
feeding nature would rather seek t
cure an injury to it than let the anima
discard it altogether.