OYSTER CULTURE IN AMERICA. 845 



Naturally conditions such as these awakened discon- 

 tent, not only among those who worked on the natural 

 beds, but among that better and more influential class who 

 had made some effort to improve such ground as they 

 could legally hold. Labouring under insecurity of title, 

 open to depredation under the guise of law, and confined 

 to areas so small as to hardly pay the attention given 

 them, it was surprising that even two hundred and fifty 

 persons should have had the courage to enter the business. 

 And, in fact, the only cases where a real success was 

 achieved was where at least three or four lots, containing 

 ostensibly 10 acres each, were held in^the same family, 

 and the property secured by a gun. 



In the appendix of the preliminary report, made to 

 the Governor in January, 1887, is given a list of the 

 owners of oyster-gardens, and the area, so far as it could 

 be determined, of each lot. To cure the foregoing defects, 

 and remove the obstacles which lay in the road to the 

 establishment of the industry upon a firm and just founda- 

 tion, I suggested that the following recommendations be 

 incorporated in a new enactment by the Legislature : 



1. That the control of the shell-fish interests of the 

 State be committed to some body, which should be large 

 enough to enable it to exercise the semi-judicial functions 

 which its duties would entail, and yet sufficiently small to 

 secure executive qualifications and full responsibility. 



2. That, as the entire area of the waters of the State 

 had not yet been surveyed or examined, and as the areas 

 and positions of all the various natural oyster-beds had 

 not yet been determined, the several sections defined in 

 the first part of this report should be accepted and made 

 legal divisions of the area. The sections had been laid off 

 with a view to their possible utilization in this way. They 



