828 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



total number of bushels (551), divided by the number of 

 sail (12), gives 45 and a fraction as the number of bushels 

 to each sail. 



. The total number of bushels taken from 

 the beds in both Sounds (Tangier and Pockomoke), in 

 thirteen days, was 47,842, and allowing from 150 to 200 

 oysters to a bushel (though the number is probably larger), 

 there would be removed from the Sounds in the very first 

 of the season from 7,176,300 to 9,568,400 oysters. This, 

 however, is far below the real number, as the entire area 

 and number of sail were not visible at the same time. 



. Though there were dredgers in large num- 

 bers at work early in September, and also many during the 

 entire summer, yet in order that any error may be under, 

 rather than over estimation, I will consider the working 

 season to be from the ist of October to the ist of May, and 

 allow three days in each week for bad weather, which would 

 prevent dredging. That allowance will leave 120 working 

 days, and in that time (by the preceding table) over 

 184,600,000 oysters would be removed from the beds in 

 the Sounds, supposing them to supply the same number 

 during the entire season. 



. The average number of young to a bushel 

 was 202. That number represents the number of young 

 oysters attached to the shells of the full-grown ones 



that were removed from the beds 20 and 30 



young were frequently found on one shell, and in one case 

 54 were counted. In estimating the total number removed 

 from the beds in one day, only those vessels dredging on 

 such beds as were known to have a large proportion of 

 young upon them have been considered, and even then the 

 estimate reaches the astonishing figure of 1,238,790. 

 These oysters are those of from two to five months' 



