Portland and Rockland and other points.


[Illustration: Lobster cars used in the wholesale trade at Portland]


Mr. J. R. Burns, of Friendship, has invented and patented a new
style of car. The inside is divided into a series of compartments by
horizontal and vertical partitions of slats, wire netting, or any
material which will permit the free circulation of the water. Each
compartment has a chute extending down into it from the top, by means
of which the lobsters can be put in and their food given them. There
are also conveniently arranged openings, with doors, through which the
lobsters may be removed when desired. These cars usually average about
35 feet in length, 18 feet in width, and 6 feet in depth, and have a
capacity for about 5,000 lobsters each. They are in use at Rockland,
Friendship, Tremont, and Jonesport. They prevent the lobsters from
huddling together and thus killing each other by their own weight.



METHODS OF SHIPPING, WHOLESALE TRADE, ETC.

As lobsters can not be shipped or preserved in a frozen state they
must be shipped either alive or boiled. About nine-tenths of the
lobsters caught in Maine waters are shipped in the live state. The
principal shipping centers are Portland, Rockland, and Eastport,
which have good railroad and steamship facilities with points outside
of the State. Those shipped from the latter point are mainly from the
British Provinces, the fishermen near Eastport bringing them in in