OYSTER CULTURE IN AMERICA. 755 



ever the people of our State are prepared to use our great 

 natural advantages for oyster culture, it will be wise to 

 throw open the natural beds in the summer time ; but at ' 

 present such a measure would simply result in the deple- 

 tion of the beds, without any compensating advantage. 



Soon after the young oysters are born they fasten 

 themselves to stones, gravel, empty shells, living oysters, 

 and other clean, hard substances. They are at first so 

 small that they are in no danger of injury by dredgers, and 

 there is, therefore, no reason why the taking of marketable 

 oysters should not be continued all summer, if the large 

 oysters could be taken away without the young ones ; but 

 these are at first so small that they are invisible, and for 

 several months they are too small to be removed from the 

 shells or larger oysters. As it is very difficult to enforce 

 the culling laws, the opening of the public beds immedi- 

 ately after the spawning season would cause millions of the 

 small oysters to be carried away on the shells ; and even if 

 the culling laws could be enforced, many of the small 

 oysters would be carried away on the large ones. This 

 would do no harm, and it would, in fact, be a great advan- 

 tage, if the small oysters were used as seed for planting ; 

 but at present most of them are destroyed. 



In another part of our report we recom- 

 mend that each public bed be examined annually, in order 

 to determine how many oysters it can yield without injury. 

 This examination should be made in August or September, 

 in order to learn how many young oysters have settled upon 

 the bed, and as the analysis and publication of the results 

 of this examination would require at least two months, the 

 opening of the public beds should be postponed as long as 

 possible. 



