OYSTER CULTURE IN AMERICA. 86 1 



In place of what was virtually discouragement of 

 enterprise in this field, is now liberal encouragement to 

 all who will venture labour or capital in the development 

 of the area. Instead of an insignificant business, yielding 

 little to the individual and nothing to the State, a new 

 industry, promising wealth and prosperity to the in- 

 dividual and increased income and importance to the 

 State, has begun its existence ; and, finally, confidence in 

 the future may be substituted for the fear of disaster to 

 the greatest of American fisheries. 



The Chesapeake beds may and probably will be des- 

 troyed through the excessive and illegal fishery they under- 

 go ; the oyster-farms on Long Island Sound may continue 

 their struggle with star-fish and inclement weather with 

 the ravages of man and nature ; but so long as North 

 Carolina holds open her hundreds of thousands of acres of 

 territory to the cultivator, the oyster industry of the country, 

 employing its thousands of people and its millions of capital, 

 cannot perish. 



