520 " HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



There is little complaint, as yet, of depletion of oyster rocks in the Gulf of Mexico, save in 

 certain localities of limited extent, closely adjacent to Mobile or New Orleans, whence favorite 

 brands have been drawn in large quantities. 



THE PACIFIC COAST. On the Pacific coast, however, great scarcity of local oysters has come 

 about, and that region would long ago have been left without this food resource had not success- 

 ful planting remedied the defect. The principal source of former supply for California and Oregon 

 was Shoalwater Buy, on the coast of Washington Territory, whence fifteen years ago not less than 

 200,000 bushels of fair oysters, gathered from the natural banks, were brought to San Francisco 

 alone, besides a large quantity supplying Oregon and the Puget Sound towns. Now this has almost 

 wholly ceased, and not one-tenth of the former catch is possible. To what this sudden failure is 

 due I cannot say. In the Gulf of California there is as yet an excessive abundance of the small 

 Ofttrcn concJiophila, but this is considered scarcely edible, nor have any operations for its improve- 

 ment by Transplanting been entered into on an extensive scale. 



4. NORTHERN "BEDDING" OF CHESAPEAKE OYSTERS. 



ORIGIN AND OBJECT OF THE INDUSTRY. I have now shown that before civilized man began 

 to encroach upon the boundaries of nature in North America oysters grew abundantly aloiig both 

 coasts of the United States and Mexico. It also appears that during the three centuries of 

 occupation of the continent by civilization the natural growth of oysters has completely disap- 

 peared in many districts, while it has everywhere been so reduced that almost no oysters are now 

 furnished to the markets, except after some intermediate process intended for their improvement; 

 furthermore, that the natural oyster beds remaining are profitable almost entirely as nurseries 

 of seed to be transplanted, and that even these nurseries are saved from ruin only by legal pro- 

 tection. It will be my next task, therefore, to examine the various methods practiced in the United 

 States by which oysters, naturally poor, are made marketable, or are cultivated upon artificial 

 beds. These methods are of three kinds : 



(1) Full-grown oysters are transferred from their beds to another place and left to retain 

 their life, or, if possible, to improve in vigor, size, and quality for a time, not to exceed one season 

 of warm weather. 



(2) Oysters which have attained a few months' growth, but are not yet ready for market, are 

 transplanted to new beds and placed under more favorable conditions for prosecuting their 

 growth to a marketable age. 



(3) Oysters may be bred from eggs, arrangements for producing and saving which, together 

 with the preservation of the embryos, form a part of the oystermau's plan and process. 



I propose now to describe these processes as they appear in America, taking up at the begin- 

 ning the first named and simplest operation, the transplanting to new beds, for improvement only, 

 of oysters nearly, or quite, in marketable condition. 



This began in the economical custom of using leisure hours to bring in supplies from outer 

 beds and deposit them near shore, where they would remain in good condition and be easily 

 accessible. Oysters thus moved, broken apart from hampering clusters, and given more room, 

 gained greatly in size and quality after lying on the new ground a few months, and on Cape Cod 

 it began to be adopted as a regular preparation for market quite a century ago. 



This operation was called "planting," but it is a misuse of the word, and the other popular 

 phrases, "laying down" or "bedding," express the fact more truthfully. It is not oyster-culture 

 at all as the word is to be used later, but only a device of trade to get fresh oysters and increase 



