Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1902-07-03
BABY LoBsTERs.
They Require Frequent Stirring te
to Prevent Cannibalism.

The New York Sun.-Professor G
H. Sherwood, one of the curators o
the American Museum of Natural His
tory, Central Park West and Seventy
ninth street, is going to Woods Hole
to test a new theory that the
only way to raise baby Holsters sue
cessfully is to sit up nights with then
and keep them from crowding and nip
ping each other to death.
The experiment is to be tried this
spring on large scale at the United
States Fish Commissions station al
Woods Hole. Preliminary expert
ments that were highly successful
were tried year ago in Narragansett
Bay by Professor Sherwood and Pro
lessor Mead, of Brown University, un
der the supervision of Director H. G.
Bumpus, of the Natural History Mu
scum of this city. Professor Bumpus
was formerly in charge of the govern
ment station at Woods Hole.
Professor Mead was the first man to
think of sitting up all night with a
baby lobster. The idea came to him
in restaurant in which there were
more flies than clean napkins. At
tached to the ceiling of that restau
rant was the ordinary ineffective lot
of wooden blades, arranged propeller
like on revolving iron rods to drive
flies away from the tables. For keep
ing away flies the things are no use
The restaurant fly becomes as accus-
toned to them as city horse does to
the automobile. But for lobster cul
ture it is different,
Professor Mead watched the fans
and got to thinking. Then he drew g
diagram en- his napkin and the gov
eminent is going to have a lobster
raising apparatus built like the fly
fans.
The new scheme is simply to Eayt
the wooden blades turn slowly in {
cylindrical receptacle filled with lob
ster fry to keep them in constant mo
ton until they are old enough to take
care of themselves and not eat each
other.
"The old way" said Professor Sher
wood yesterday, lis to put the fry in
bags eight feet square, partly sub
merged, and to depend upon any wind
there may be, and natural tide and
current movements of the water
through the bag to keep the Try in
motion. The experiments have never
had good results. 1t made no diff
ference how many fry you might start
with. You might put $4,000 or 1000, 900
in one bag and at the end of week
not more than 200 would be alive. AS
of l per cent. of the entire lot saved
and raised. In experiments with the
new method we have saved as high as
so per cent
THE fry in their early stages of de-
velopment have no sense of danger
They are prey to every other organ
ism that gets into the water; they get
huddled together in the corners of the
square bags; they eat each other and
are killed by the million. 1t re-
quires anywhere from eleven to six
UGH Ndy ., dNtOidlnS W itlb pCl oLhl
for the fry to pass through it's first
three practically helpless stages and
become lobsterling. When you can
get them Up to the fourth, or lobster
ling. stage they are fit to be released
in open water or pounds to do their
part towards saving their kind from
extinction.
"In it's fourth stage, when it is
about an inch long, the lobster knows
enough to go to the bottom and hide
among the pebbles when danger
threatens it. Its shell begins to
harden and it's claws become of some
use
1.-The new way is to have the fry in
cylindrical bags of linen scrim, so
there will be no square corners for
them to get crowded into. Near the
bottom of each bag will be the
wooden blades making about fifteen
turns a minute. The blade will be
set at such an angle as will keep a
current Of water going upwards all
the time. This stirring will keep the
fry in constant motion.
"As Mead said when ne thought OF
the scheme, you've got to sit up nights
with a baby lobster if you want him &c
thrive and grow up and be good--tC
broil. That's just what Mead and ar
assistant did, literally, on a houseboat
at Wexford, NaTagansett Bay. They
didn't have any apparatus to star
with. so they kept stirring up witt
the blade of an oar the water con
tanning the lobster fry. They tool
turns on day and night watches anC
kept it up for over a week with grea
| results.
Then the apparatus was built ant
operated in bags containing at thu
outset $500 fry. The lowest per
eentage saved in any one bag wa
16 per cent. In several so per cent
was saved. There are to be forty