OYSTER CULTURE IN AMERICA. 775 



$50 to $700, or by imprisonment from one month to six 

 months ; and any boats which are used in violation of 

 these laws are sold at auction, the captor receiving one- 

 half the proceeds, and the town the other half. 



Certain towns, however, have a somewhat different 

 law ; thus the town of Guilford has, by special act of 

 legislature, the right to lease its grounds for ten years, to 

 the highest bidder at public auction, but it cannot lease 

 more than five acres to one person. 



The grounds which are thus appropriated to private 

 parties by the towns are not used for farming or propa- 

 gating oysters, except in a few cases, but simply for plant- 

 ing, and the seed is either taken from the public beds, or 

 is purchased from the holders of private grounds in the 

 area under the jurisdiction of the State, or from persons 

 outside the State. 



The system does not therefore materially increase the 

 number of oysters, but it does greatly increase their value ; 

 and it is therefore a great source of wealth to the people of 

 the State, and nearly all lands adapted for the purpose are 

 now appropriated. 



OYSTER CULTIVATION IN THE DEEP WATERS OF CON- 

 NECTICUT, ON GROUNDS OVER WHICH THE STATE 

 HAS EXCLUSIVE JURISDICTION. 



The business of planting oysters in Connecticut, under 

 the provisions which have just been explained, grew so 

 rapidly that all the available inshore bottom near New 

 Haven was soon occupied, and these waters looked like a 

 submerged forest, so thickly were they planted with boun- 

 dary stakes ; and at last Mr. H. C. Ro\ve ventured out into 

 the deeper water of Long Island Sound, and inaugurated a 

 new era in American oyster culture by the establishment of 

 an oyster farm in water forty feet deep. 



