THE OYSTER. 113 



tiguous planted beds, where the distribution of special 

 spawners is unnecessary ; yet even then it may be said 

 to be a wise measure. 



" The successful capture of a plenteous ' set,' how- 

 ever, is not all of the game. This must grow to sala- 

 ble maturity before any profits can be gathered, and it 

 so often happens that the most promising beds in Sep- 

 tember are utterly wrecked by January, making a total 

 loss of all the money and labor expended, that more 

 than one planter has decided that it does not pay to 

 attempt to raise oysters upon shells, so long as he is 

 able to buy and stock his grounds with half-grown 

 seed a decision which may be based upon sound 

 reasoning in respect to certain localities, but which 

 certainly will not apply to all of our northern coast. 



" The great drawback to East River oyster-planting, 

 of every kind, is the abundance of enemies with which 

 the beds are infested. These consist of drum-fish, 

 skates, and, to a small degree, of various other fishes ; 

 of certain sponges and invertebrates that do slight 

 damage, and of various boring molluscs, the crushing 

 winkle, and the insidious star-fish or sea-star. It is 

 the last-named plague that the planter dreads the most, 

 and the harm that may be directly traced to it amounts 

 to many tens of thousands of dollars annually in this 

 district alone. Indeed, it seems to have here its head- 

 quarters on the American oyster coast, where it has 

 utterly ruined many a man's whole year's work." 



Ingersoll states that 20 bushels of shells laid down 

 anywhere in the upper part of Barnegat Bay, New 



