240 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



they are sifted in the riddle. The large ones are taken for the market and the small 

 ones replanted. 



The yield from a crop of mussels properly cared for is something enormous and 

 difficult to comprehend. In agriculture, corn is considered one of the most prolific and 

 valuable of farm products, producing on the maximum 246 bushels to the acre. If 

 marketed at $0.75 per bushel, the farmer realizes $184.50. However, when compared 

 with a crop of mussels this yield appears small. Harding (1883) estimates for the 

 English beds that the average yearly production is 108 tons per acre, worth at least $262. 

 George A. Carman reports that the artificially planted mussel beds in the vicinity of 

 New York produce from 4,000 to 6,000 bushels per acre, which at the market price 

 of $0.40 per bushel amounts to from $1,600 to $2,400. Allowing three years for the 

 growth of these beds, it leaves an annual average income of from $500 to $800 per acre. 

 Furthermore, the time and labor required to plant and care for an acre of mussels is 

 almost nothing compared with that expended by the agriculturist in raising his grain. 



To the question, "which is the better method to use for cultivating mussels in the 

 United States, the bouchot system or the bed system?" it is safe to answer that the latter 

 is the only reasonable and practical one to attempt. There are probably few, if any, 

 places on our coast where the bouchot could be utilized, and even if there were such 

 places the cost of building materials and of labor are so high compared with the value 

 of the shellfish that the method would prove unprofitable. On the other hand, we have 

 thousands of acres along our shores that are adapted for mussel beds, with plenty of 

 .seed with which to plant them. The experiment of transplanting, as described above, 

 has been tried, and it has proved not only successful but exceedingly profitable. Culti- 

 vation by means of the bed system is therefore the one to be recommended for use in 

 this country. 



DURATION OF MUSSEL BEDS. 



One of the important facts brought out from the study of mussel beds is that, in 

 general, they are short lived. Vast areas of bottom suddenly become covered with count- 

 less numbers of the shellfish, and three or four years later little or no trace of the bed 

 can be found. George A. Carman, of Canarsie, N. Y., reported one bed in Jamaica 

 Bay from which he took fine healthy mussels on one occasion and, on returning for a 

 second load about 10 days later, found that practically all of the mussels were dead. 

 A number of the Long Island oystermen stated that in their experience the average life 

 of a mussel bed was three to four years. 



In the course of the reconnaissance conducted during the summer of 19 17 more 

 than 3,000 acres of mussel grounds which had been reported on the best of authority 

 were found to contain nothing but dead shells or no traces of mussels ever having been 

 present. These reports included two beds on the north side of Long Sand Shoal, aggre- 

 gating about 600 acres in extent, one in Fishers Island Sound between Latimer Reef and 

 Eel Grass Ground of 500 acres, one at the mouth of Fort Pond Bay of 1,000 acres, one 

 in Orient Harbor of 50 acres, and one off Sandy Hook of considerably more than 1,000 

 acres. In the case of the Sandy Hook bed, which bordered the south side of the Main 

 Channel and Gedney Channel from a point 1 mile east of bell bouy 5 on the Main Channel 

 to light buoy (Occ. W) 5 on Gedney Channel, a distance of nearly 2 miles, George A. 

 Carman had reported finding a dense growth of 2 ^4-inch mussels in the fall of 1916 



