DETERIORATION OF AMERICAN OYSTER-REDS. 29 



of the militant life is intrinsic. Though very generally unsympathetic, 

 the exchange of services under agreement is now, to a considerable 

 extent, and may be wholly, carried on with a due regard to the claims 

 of others may be constantly accompanied by a sense of benefit given 

 as well as benefit received ; but the slaying of antagonists, the burn- 

 ing of their houses, the appropriation of their territory, can not but 

 be accompanied by vivid consciousness of injury done them, and a 

 consequent brutalizing effect on the feelings an effect wrought, not 

 on soldiers only, but on those who employ them and contemplate their 

 deeds with pleasure. This last form of social life, therefore, inevi- 

 tably deadens the sympathies and generates a state of mind which 

 prompts crimes of trespass ; while the first form, allowing the sym- 

 pathies free play, if it does not directly exercise them, favors the 

 growth of altruistic sentiments and the resulting virtues. 



DETERIORATION" OF AMERICAN" OYSTER-BEDS. 



By Lieutenant FRANCIS WINSLOW. 



A WRITER in a recent number of " Lippincott's Magazine " has 

 called attention to the failure of the oyster-beds of the New 

 England and Middle States, to the deterioration of those lying in 

 Southern waters, and to the necessity for some effort, either upon the 

 part of the national or State Governments or by individuals, to main- 

 tain the supply of oysters in sufficient numbers to satisfy the large 

 and increasing demand of the consumers. This very desirable end, 

 it is suggested, can be obtained by a system of oyster-culture similar 

 to that adopted by the French Government and by various foreign 

 oyster companies. The author's statements of facts, especially those 

 relating to the foreign fisheries, are both interesting and in accordance 

 with what is known by those interested in and possessing knowledge 

 of the history of the oyster-fishery, either in the United States or 

 abroad. The inferences drawn from the statistics collected can be 

 accepted as just, inasmuch as they relate to the destruction or deterio- 

 ration of the American beds ; but that they logically lead to a belief 

 that oyster-culture in the United States, if conducted as in France, can 

 either supply the demand or be financially successful, is open to serious 

 question. 



There is no doubt, as stated in the article at present under review, 

 that the natural beds of the North are practically exhausted ; neither 

 is there any doubt of the greatly diminished production of the South- 

 ern beds that is, those of Maryland and Virginia. That the area of 



