200 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



a natural bed is found, and when it is worked it is soon exhausted. Seed oysters 

 were formerly obtained from natural beds, but they are now largely purchased from 

 those who make a specialty of this branch of the industry, although some oyster 

 planters collect their own seed oysters. 



It is only within recent years, comparative!}-, that the State realized the worth of 

 the oyster beds within its boundaries, and it then began to survey the beds and gram 

 franchises, until now the industry has grown beyond the domestic markets and oysters 

 from New York waters are largely exported. 



To prepare an oyster bed, take for instance a piece of ground of fifty acres under 

 the water of Long Island Sound — water from five to ten fathoms deep. First a 

 steamer will be required that will cost from $7,000 to $i2,ooo. The ground is 

 marked out in sections with buoys, and the steamer with steam dredges is set to work 

 to clean up the ground. Everything movable is removed from it, until the ground is 

 perfectly clean and raked or harrowed very much, as a farmer would prepare a field 

 for wheat. This may require months of constant work, simply to prepare the ground. 

 Then there is spread on the ground a quantity of oyster shells or broken stones pre- 

 pared and sold for this purpose. With this stone or shell oysters are planted during 

 the months of July and August from which to obtain the spawn or spat, as it is gen- 

 erally called. The spat, if it appears at all, v.^ill be found from the [5th of September 

 to the 1st of October, when it is apparent to the naked eye. If no set is obtained, 

 which is too frequently the case, the ground is left until another year, when the 

 steamers go over it again and clean it as before. This may continue for several )-ears 

 before a set is obtained. When the set is obtained it is allowed to remain on the 

 ground for about one year; then it is thinned out, some of it being planted on other 

 grounds kept for the growing of oysters for market. A market oyster is from 

 three to five years old, depending upon the size demanded, from box to " cullens " or 

 " cullenteens." By far the greater part of the deep water set is taken up and sold to 

 planters, who remove them to shoal water grounds in the State, such as Great South 

 Bay, Princess Bay, Rockaway, Canarsie, Jamaica Bay and other places. The bays 

 named are not reproducti\-e. The planters buy all their set at the two or three years 

 old size, grow them one season on their own beds and send them to market the follow- 

 ing winter. There may be a rotation of crops on a deep water oyster bed divided 

 into four sections ; the first section prepared and planted the first year and so on each 

 section in its order annually until the planter returns to the first section to market the 

 oysters from that part of the bed. 



The oysterman's life is one of constant exposure, but unremitting attention and 

 careful, painstaking work will insure success in the oyster business. Large oyster 

 companies have been formed in the State, with considerable capital, some of them 



