396 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



The temperature of Martha's Vineyard is much more 

 favorable than in the most of the State, not varying 

 much from that of Nantucket, where there are two hun- 

 dred and thirty days without frost, while the other parts 

 of the State only enjoy from one hundred and forty 

 to one hundred and sixty, the lowest temperature in winter 

 being from 18^ to 25° higher than in the Connecticut 

 River Valley. The Vineyard, however, has some advan- 

 tages over Nantucket in not receiving the sharp north- 

 east winds which sometimes sweep down around Cape 

 Cod but hardly ever touch this island. It is a noticeable 

 fact that while the mean summer temperature of the water 

 in Massachusetts Bay is 52°, in Buzzard's Bay on the south 

 and in the water around the Vineyard and in the Sound, it 

 is 72°. The influence of the Gulf Stream seems to be very 

 perceptible on the south shore ; three times within the past 

 twenty years the islanders have been visited by the golden 

 mullet, a very delicate fish of the South, and never known to 

 be north of the Carolinas. Some years ago a true pelican 

 was shot in one of the salt ponds opening into the sea. 



While fishing will always be a large element in the sup- 

 port of the inhabitants of Martha's Vineyard, there is an 

 item I think likely to bring a considerable revenue to the 

 island which, though not agricultural, may be one which the 

 farmer-fishermen of this locality can pursue, and it is oyster 

 culture. 



The enormous consumption of this popular bivalve has 

 already created anxiety as to the supply, which many intelli- 

 gent fishermen fear will not keep pace with the demand. 



Prof. Baird of the United States Fish Commission, who is 

 doing more than any one man in this country to increase food 

 supply for the people, has, with Prof. Riley and other assist- 

 ants at the Station of the Commission at Wood's Holl, 

 found a safe, sure and expeditious way of producing 

 oysters by artificial fecundation. 



But beyond this, and which is of much more consequence, 

 is an economic plan for retaining in large ponds or aquaria 

 for the purpose, the embryo or spat after fertilization, till the 

 young oysters shall, free from all outside dangers, attach them- 

 selves to twigs, fascines, shells, prepared tiles, and other 



