FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 



20I 



successful and some of them have proven unremunerative. Since the State law was 

 changed to provide for leasing oyster beds, instead of granting franchises as formerly, 

 very little ground has been applied for in Long Island Sound, and the reason for this 

 is that a fifteen years lease is not long enough to warrant a man or a body of men in 

 spending the mone\- necessary in cleaning up and preparing the ground for oyster 

 culture. The policy of the State of Connecticut is altogether different. The citizens 

 of that State have a perpetual franchise of the oyster beds, and the industr}- is carried 

 on to a larger extent than in this State, and I believe that in the near future our 

 Legislature will see the wisdom of this 

 policy and appl)- it to our own oyster 

 beds, that New York ma\- be second to 

 none in the value of her oyster [product. 



Of all fish cultivated, the shellfish or 

 oyster is the largest food producer that 

 wc have. Not many \-ears ago the 

 oyster was considered a lu.xury to be 

 indulged in by the few comparati\"el}-, 

 the average price being about three cents 

 each for a marketable oyster. The)' are 

 now three for a cent, I am pleased to 

 say, and if we can impress it ujjon the 

 minds of the people that they are no 

 longer a luxury, but one of the cheapest 

 articles of food, I think that even 

 more of them will be used. Let no 

 one be deceived into thinking that 

 all that is necessary to obtain a crop 

 of oysters is to secure the spat or 

 set of young oj-sters that I ha\e men- 

 tioned, for such is far from the truth. 



The oyster from its first appearance has numerous enemies, and I have already 

 related that the o)-ster itself preys upon its own eggs and fry. For instance, the star- 

 fish — and their number is legion — have been known to devour an entire bed of oysters 

 in a single week. The oystermen have within the last few \-ears been able to cope 

 with the starfish to a certain extent by the introduction and use of mops on the beds. 

 The accompanying illustrations show the mop and starfish on the deck of an oyster 

 steamer. The starfish in the illustration came from one lift of the mop. These mops 

 are made of cotton twine, soft laid, and braided in ropes exactly like a mop for a 



•TONGING OYSTERS. 



