The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-09-18
LOBSTER FARM.
The Government Matching Station
at Woods Holl, Mass,
Maintaining the supply OF the
Edible Crustacsan-

ping corn over q SLOW hfe you nave
very good idea Of tho way young lob
aters hatch out 10 tho laboratory Of
the United States Fish Commission In
Woods Holl, Mass Before you is
glass jar filed with running water.
Loosely filling It about half way up
are large number Of eggs nearly
round in shape and about one-six-
teeuth OF an inch in diameter, ever
trying to rest on the bottom, but
boiling and bubbling up with the
force Of the incoming current below
and dancing in it like the corn on the
stove. Once Ia a while one Of the ex-
panding shells falls of it's owners buck,
and before Mr.. Lobster knows it,
whisk on he goes up and away with
the current through a long tube into
a bigger receiving jar as frisky as q
young colt.
Uncle Sam takes good deal OF pains
with his lobster crop. It's one Of the
most important known to the coast
fisherman, aud the government doesn't
intend that either the catcher or the
eater of lobster shall starve b. rea-
son OF its extinction.
The lobster leads q nomadic life,
migrating more or less from warmer
waters to colder and from shallow to
deep, according to the season. He
can dispense with a claw, though I'M
willingly, and grow another in its
stead. He is fond of fresh lobster
himself as we'll as of fish and CLANS,
and eats his food bones and all, the
bouy part furnishing him with mater
ial for his she'll. The lobster is very
particular to get himself a new shell
when the old one has become last
years style The she'll cracks, warps,
curls up and sloughs off, materially
aided by the contortions of the lobster
himself. Then he emerges in q thin
new suit, which gradually hardens I'M
til it is in turn ready to be cast of.
The fish commission is in lengue
with the lobster against his enemies,
and these are men, other Holsters, par
asites, disease, and hsh-eating things
generally. Hence, the artificial hatch
ing process.
The female Holsters for the commits
sion are caught In the ordinary way
in traps or lobster pots-baited boxes
or baskets, anchored to the bottom of
the lobster beds with stones, and
pulled up at intervals for inspection.
The law in all the states forbids the
taking Of female Holsters with eggs,
or of any lobster under ten or eight
inches long. But for the purposes of
scientific propagation an exception is
cheerfully made.
The she lobster is so proud of her
eggs that she CLUES them on the out
side of her body. Hence she is
called at such times a ''berried hen"
lobster. Formerly, before the pnss-
age of repressive laws, these egg-de.
corGted Holsters we're as great deli
cacy as roe shad, and the eggs we're
used in making sauces for salads.
The United States was much quicker
than the European nations to recog-
nize the danger of destroying the
"berried" Holsters and to protect
them by law.
Fish cultural sharps talk lightly OF
millions OF eggs, and no wonder. One
average ten-inch lobster will yield
10000 eggs, an average nineteen-inch
one about $4,000. In the matches
these are stripped from the Holsters
and put into Macdonald Matching jars
which are so arranged that consta nj
current of pure sea water is forced in
ut the bottom and passes off at the
top. Tho eggs are heavier than sea
water and hence sink to the bottom,
where the incoming stream OF water
keeps them bobbing about Wher
the lobster larvae hatch out their
shells sink, and they being lighter
aoat off through the discharge pip,
and are set Free The Matching is al
most all completed in June of eacl
year, though sometimes it continue
during early July. The female lob
ster breeds only once in two years
The vOun0 iohatar lika vOupo bupoai