OYSTER CULTURE IN AMERICA. 723 



is to obtain accurate information as to the true condition 

 of the oyster beds of the State by actual personal examina- 

 tion. 



We have accordingly visited fifty-nine of our more 

 important oyster beds, and have made three hundred and 

 twenty-six examinations, and have accurately measured and 

 counted all the oysters upon one hundred and twenty 

 thousand nine hundred and fifty-eight square yards of 

 oyster bottom, .... We are therefore in a position 

 to state the present value of our oyster beds with very great 

 accuracy ; but the attempt to decide whether this value is 

 diminishing, and if so, how rapidly, is attended with great 

 difficulties, as there is no accurate official record of the 

 condition of the beds in the past. The statements of 

 interested fishermen, with limited local experience and with 

 no written records, are clearly of little value in themselves, 

 and in the absence of official records, we have been com- 

 pelled to adopt an indirect method of comparison. 

 . The results of our examination 



show an average of one oyster to each four and a quarter 

 square yards, or more exactly, two hundred and thirty-five 

 thousandths of an oyster to each square yard. Our examin- 

 ation therefore shows that within the last three years our 

 beds have lost more than 39 per cent, of their value. 



(And this) fully justifies the worst fore- 

 bodings, (and shows) that the oyster property of the State 

 is in imminent danger of complete destruction. Having 

 reached this conclusion, the next step was to discover the 

 cause of the injury (and that arrived at by various methods 

 was found to be), that the depletion of our beds is not 

 strictly due to any particular method of gathering oysters, 

 nor to the destruction of the young, nor to the \vorking of 

 the beds at wrong seasons, but to the great demand which 



