OYSTER CULTURE IN AMERICA. 829 



growth, .... many of them would doubtless perish 

 (even) if undisturbed, for though all oysters on the beds, 

 mature or others, would suffer if exposed to unfavourable 

 conditions, yet many of those conditions would affect the 

 young and young growth to a greater degree than the 

 mature and more hardy oysters. 



I will therefore suppose that 50 per cent, of the young 

 taken up would never have reached maturity, and will also 

 make another and very liberal supposition, that by the i st 

 of April the young would have reached such a size as would 

 make it profitable to open them. That would make the 

 working season, so far as the young were concerned, 1 04 

 days, and the number of young removed would amount in 

 that time to 128,834,000, of which about 64,417,000 would 

 probably have attained their full growth. These young 

 are 'a total sacrifice, never seeing the water again after 

 their removal, and generally perishing on distant or 

 adjacent shell heaps. 



Many more are probably destroyed by carelessness in 

 disposing of the old shells brought up by the dredge. The 

 dredging is usually across the bed, and the shoal hard 

 ridges noticed along the edges of the beds on the western 

 side of Tangier Sound, and on all edges adjacent to muddy 

 bottoms, are no doubt caused by the dredgers, who, as 

 they approach the edge of the bed, having dragged across 

 it, haul in their dredges just before getting over the muddy 

 bottoms. They then stand on, tack or " wear," and as 

 soon as on the bed drop the dredges again. In the mean- 

 time the crews have been busily " culling " the oysters, 

 and, as likely as not, have thrown over on the soft mud a 

 far larger number of young attached to the shells than they 

 have taken off on the oysters. 



