29 



A farmer works his land and tries to plant his crops to the 

 best advantage. Oyster bottoms should be worked with the 

 same interest, and they can be made to pay eight or ten times 

 more per acre than a like area on land. Cotton will grow if 

 planted on any land, but to get the best returns conditions must 

 be studied. It will do better on some land than on others; it 

 must be cultivated and the weeds destroyed ; it must be sprayed 

 and planted early to protect it from the boll weevil; it must be 

 picked early, the stalks destroyed, and the ground plowed to pre 

 vent devastation from the boll weevil. So with the oyster 

 grounds ; they must be carefully selected ; proper cultch supplied ; 

 the clusters of young separated ; when ready for the market, they 

 are best transferred to acquire texture and flavor ; and in general 

 the same care given to them as in raising any agricultural pro- 

 ducts. 



Rotation of Beds. — The Louisiana Oyster Commission is 

 extremely liberal in its grants and allows a man far more 

 bottom than he can possible utilize. By actual practice and ex- 

 perience it has been found that one man with tongs can profit- 

 ably work only about ten acres; while two in combination may 

 cultivate to advantage twenty-five acres. Where the dredge is 

 used, a considerable larger area may be utilized, but it ought to 

 lie in waters over eight feet deep, as a dredge works to better ad- 

 vantage there than in shallow water. A correspondingly larger 

 number of oysters can be handled than with tongs, but the ex- 

 pense likewise is greater. 



As has been stated, under normal conditions, Louisiana can 

 market her oysters the second winter after the setting of spar.. 

 Time and labor can moreover be saved by keeping marketable 

 oysters, or better yet, by keeping a uniform size in each bed. 

 The bottom ought then to be laid off into three beds, one,' two 

 and three. The first spring cultch is placed on bed one. The 

 next spring, these are broken up into individuals and returned 

 to the same bed ; shells are also put on bed two. The third spring 

 the clusters are broken up and returned; also those on bed one 

 are culled again and any young from that season's set transfer- 

 red" to bed two; and bed three started. That fall and winter 

 the oysters on bed one are of size and should be marketed. Bed 

 one is then ready for spat the following spring. By thus rotat- 



