Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners 185 



shells planted on this lot made a catch in three months of 1,158 

 young oysters per bushel or 1,544 per bushel when culled. This 

 stock, just as it comes from the bottom, is of a quality such as 

 sells in Connecticut for fifty cents per bushel. 54 



With reference to the date of shelling, character of bottom, 

 depth of water, density of water, quantity of shells, method of 

 planting and period of exposure the plants made on these two 

 lots are exactly similar and the difference in the results cannot 

 be referred to any of the conditions named. They differed in 

 two important respects, however, and it is to these differences 

 that the difference in the results is to be attributed. The water 

 does not flow swiftly over lot No. 1, and in its course back and 

 forth through Tangier Sound the water receives a comparatively 

 small quantity of oyster spawn, due to the depleted condition of 

 the natural oyster bars in the Sound. Over lot No. 2 very swift 

 currents occur with each change in the tide and into each tide, 

 from May to September, eggs are poured from untold millions 

 of mother oysters living on the extensive and numerous un- 

 touched natural oyster bars located in the deep water from one 

 end of the Bay to the other. 



When the oyster embryos, developing from the eggs in the 

 water, reach the stage in which they change, from free swim- 

 ming creatures to those adapted only to a sedentary life, they 

 fall to the bottom. Minute oysters are probably precipitated 

 throughout the breeding season in a continuous drizzle upon 

 the bottom everywhere in the Bay, but all those not falling 

 upon clean hard objects are lost. Over lot No. 1 the currents 

 were not sufficiently strong to keep sediment washed from the 

 shells, and such oyster fry as may have been deposited had little 

 chance to become attached. A better catch would probably 

 have been secured had the water been more frequently disturbed 

 by storms. Over lot No. 2 the currents were strong enough to 

 scour the surfaces of the shells during at least two periods each 

 day and during these periods oyster fry found the shells in 

 favorable condition for attachment. 



5*Since this report went to press it has been found that a demand for 

 at least 100,000 bushels of such Chesapeake seed at 35 cents per bushel 

 now exists in Chincoteague Bay. 



