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food. The traces of its ravages are evident. The tips of the 

 oyster shells are broken off, as if they had been chiseled with a 

 cold chisel. These fish are especially partial toward oysters that 

 have been freshly bedded. The damage to natural reefs is slight 

 and likewise to oysters that have lain on the bottom for some 

 time. It is never safe, however, to take any chances ; as these 

 fish are voracious eaters and a school of them may destroy an 

 enormous number of oysters in a bed. Their ravages are confined 

 to the bedding ground. Occasionally traces of their destruction 

 are seen in brackish, raising bottoms, but not enough to warrant 

 taking any special means to keep them out. Where oysters are 

 transplanted to salt waters in preparing them for market, special 

 precautions must be taken to protect them. 



In some places stakes are driven down close enough to exclude 

 Drum-fish, yet not enough to prevent the current from flowing 

 over the beds. A better plan of protection, and one that is not 

 so expensive, is to fence in the bedding ground with wire net- 

 ting. Galvanized netting of four-inch mesh made of number 

 twelve wire is the most satisfactory. This will not easily rot 

 away and is strong enough to hold against the attack of large 

 fish. The writer has seen a large Tarpoon or White fish get 

 accidently caught in a bedding ground surrounded by an or- 

 dinary two-inch mesh chicken wire, and in its efforts to get out, 

 tear the netting as if it were twine. 



In fencing in, it is well to have the stakes creosoted to keep 

 them from being worm eaten. Use only good, strong stakes, well 

 driven down. These may be placed anywhere from ten to twenty 

 feet apart according to the quality of stakes used; twelve feet 

 will be found to be about the right distance. If extra stakes 

 are used the distance may be increased, if not so good, lessened. 

 The corner posts must be braced, for the ground is never solid 

 enough to prevent its giving, which often allows sag enough 

 to permit the entrance of fish. The braces are most conveniently 

 and effectively placed by being run from base of the next-to- 

 corner posts to the top of the corner stake. If the comers are not 

 braced, it is well to round them, so that the strain will not 

 all come on a single stake. The netting is best laid on the inside, 

 so in case that porpoises or large fish get accidently enclosed, 

 in trying to get out, they will not tear the netting from the 



