OYSTER CULTURE IN AMERICA. 737 



valuable as seed, and they will pass into the hands of the 

 planters instead of going to the packing houses. The true 

 remedy, therefore, is the encouragement of planting, and 

 if our people would develop this business immediately, all 

 need for special legislation would disappear. 



. . . . The destruction of young oysters at the 

 packing houses is trifling, however, compared with that 

 which results from violations of the culling laws. When a 

 dredge is brought up from an oyster bed it usually contains 

 a few r marketable oysters and great quantities of empty 

 shells, which are often covered with young oysters. The 

 law requires that these shall be thrown back upon the beds 

 where they are taken, under a penalty of three years' 

 imprisonment, or three hundred dollars fine, or the for- 

 feiture of the boat used ; but the enactment of this law has 

 failed to remedy the evil. 



It is, and always must be, difficult to enforce a culling 

 law ; and as the captain of a dredging boat wishes to 

 improve his time on the beds to the best advantage, and 

 to make the most of the pleasant weather while it lasts, it 

 is of course to his interest to fill his boat as quickly as 

 possible, and all hands are therefore so fully employed in 

 catching oysters that there is no time to cull them. 



Even when a captain is disposed to cull on the beds 

 he may be compelled, by stormy weather, to run for 

 harbour, and will then employ his crew in culling the 

 oysters while lying in harbour. The shells are then 

 dumped overboard in heaps around the anchorage, and 

 even if the bottom should by chance be favourable for the 

 growth of the oysters, they are smothered and killed under 

 the heaps of shells. 



The only way in which this can be prevented is by 

 making it to the interest of the fishermen to save rather 



