OYSTER CULTURE IN AMERICA. 739 



shall have caught them in the waters of said county. The 

 wording of the law seems to have been designed to permit 

 the residents of this county to purchase, outside the 

 county, oysters to be used for manure, and therefore sug- 

 gests that a State law may be necessary. 



We therefore recommend that a law may be passed 

 prohibiting, under a penalty of three years' imprisonment, 

 for each offence, the taking, or sale, or use of oysters as 

 manure, or to be burned in lime-kilns, or to be used in the 

 manufacture of iron. 



THE RETURN OF SHELLS TO THE BEDS. 



As it has taken our people nearly two hundred years 

 to discover that we cannot afford to destroy oysters in this 

 way, we can hardly expect them to perceive that clean, 

 empty shells are also so valuable that their use for lime, 

 &c., should be prohibited. 



One of your Commissioners called attention to the 

 very great value of oyster shells in 1879, .... and 

 showed that a great increase of fertility would follow the 

 return of the shells to the waters of our bay. 



The history of the Connecticut oyster fisheries for the 

 last three years shows that, if this advice had been followed, 

 our beds would not now be exhausted ; and we therefore 

 quote the passage from page 29 of the " Report of the 

 Commissioners of Fisheries of Maryland for 1880," in 

 which this advice was given, together with the reasons 

 for it : 



" As the young oysters swim to and fro in the water, 

 they are carried to great distances by the tides and cur- 

 rents, and reach all parts of the region of water in which 

 the parent bed is situated. In a favourable year a floating 



plank or bush, or piece of driftwood, will be found to 



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