Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 September 1893 — BIG LOBSTER POUND. [ARTICLE]

BIG LOBSTER POUND.

1 MllUon of the Tootluome Shellflsb Shipped from It Yearly. There is a lobster farm—or pound, as It is called—twelve acres in extent at Southport, Me. The Boston Globe describes this pound, the most successful on the coast, whence 1,000,000*lobsters are shipped each year. The pound is formed by building a solid dam across a tide-water cove. This dam does not quite rise to highwater mark, but across the top is placed a fence of iron rods, permitting a daily change of water, and preventing the lobsters from escaping. In the spring and fall business is most brisk. When the fishermen bring the lobsters to the pound, the “fish,* as they are called, are hoisted to the dam, measured, and those which are more than ten and onehalf inches long, the legal limit, are thrown in. If a lobster is dlever his life in the pound may be long and full of joy. If he is stupid he will be fished out with a drag seine and packed in a barrel, with a piece of ice for a pillow, and sent to Boston. The seine is made of stout twine and is weighted at the bottom with a heavy chain. Along the top is a row of corks, which sustain the weight of the seine while the chain drags on the bottom of the pound. A single cast of this seine will bring up lobsters enough to fill eleven barrels. The chain as it sweeps along the bottom stirs up the lobsters, which immediately shoot backward into the slack twine. In taking them out the men wear heavy mittens, though even then they are often nipped. In the pound the lobsters are fed on salt herring, men rowing about in skiffs and pitching the herring overboard. This is called “feeding the chickens,” and it takes about six barrels to make a light luncheon for the flock There are said to be a number of old, hard shells in the Southport farm which for years have evaded the casts of the drag. Two of enormous size have become quite tame and crawl about in the shallow water. The age of the lobster is a debated question. The small marketable specimens are generally supposed to be from 4 to 6 years old, but some lobsters are believed to live to the green old age of 25 years.