Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1902-07-03


The restaurant fly becomes as accus-
toned to them as city horse does to
the automobile, But for lobster cub
ture it is different.
Professor Mead watched the fans
and got to thinking. Then he drew a
diagram on his napkin and The gov
eminent is going to have lobster
raising apparatus built like the fly
| fans
The new scheme is simply to have
| the wooden blades turn slowly in q
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 fry 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 Loco, 900
in one bag and at the end Of a week
not more than,200 would be alive. AS
rule there would be only fraction
of | 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
and can't take care of themselves.
They are a 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
teen days, according to temperature,
for the fry to pass through its first
three practically helpless stages and
become a 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 its claws become of some
use.
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 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.
LAS Mead said when he thought of
the scheme, you've got to sit up nights
with a baby lobster if you want him to
thrive and grow up and be good-to
broil That's just what Mead and an
assistant did, literally, on a hOuseboat
at Wexford, Narragansett Bay. They
didn't have any apparatus to start
with, so they kept stirring up with
the blade of an oar the water CON
tanning the lobster fry. They took
turns on day and night watches and
kept it up for over a week with great
results,
Then the apparatus was built and
operated in bags containing at the
outset $500 fry, The lowest per
centagc saved in any one bag was
IS per cent. In several SO per cent.
was saved There are to be forty
eight of these bags in the apparatus
at Woods Hole this year,
Another season we will probably
hatch the eggs as we'll as develop the
fry in these round bags equipped
with the wooden stirrers. In the
Matching jars now used the fry gets
an awful mauling at the very start"
The cost of series of scrim bags
equipped with the revolving blades is
insignificant. Any man, thinks Pro,
lessor Sherwood. who wants to adopt
the method of the Fish Commission
and rear HOLSTERS as a commercial en-
terprise and have a pond to grow
them in until they are marketable, is
more likely to make money than to
lose it,
Holsters are supposed to breed
every second year. The average mum.
Der of eggs produced each season by
the female is 10000. The known max.
imum is 9744O.