25 



FATE OF THE GULF PLANTS. 



Of the two plants made in the ^iilf in 1904, one to the eas: 

 ai.d one to the west of the jetties, only the east plant was found 

 (luring the past season. The buoys markinfj' the location of both 

 these beds were carried away durinfj the winter of 1904. That 

 from the east bed was found near the beach at least a mile from 

 the bed, while the one that had marked the location of the west 

 bed was never seen after February of 1905, when it was re- 

 ported to have been in position by Captain Ford, who carried 

 the shells to make the gulf plants. After the date when the 

 e?st bed was located it was visited on several occasions and a 

 sounding pole used to determine whether or not any of the 

 shells were still above the mud. Although the depth of the de- 

 posit of sediment on the bed varied at the different examina- 

 tions, there was only one time when any part of the plant was 

 above the mud. Usually the higher part of the bed, made by 

 dumping a schooner load of shells in two piles, was covered by 

 two to six inches of mud, while over the greater part of the 

 surface of the bed the mud was from twelve to forty inches deep. 

 AVhen last visitetd, on March 24, 1906, the depth of the mud over 

 the bed Avas three and one-half feet, so that all chance of the 

 erosion of the sediment was apparently hopeless. 



Shells taken from this bed at different times during the 

 summer of 1905 w'ere always thickly covered w'ith mud, and 

 never in any instance showed the presence of any spat; so it is 

 probable that all the shells, and the adult oysters as well, had 

 been permanently covered up before the beginning of the breed- 

 ing season in 1905. 



The outcome of the experiments just described demon- 

 strates the impracticability of attempting to utilize for cultural 

 purposes bottoms in the open gulf near the mouth of rivers 

 where there is likely to be heavy deposits of sediment after each 

 l(/-avy rain. It should be understood however, that these results 

 are not to be assumed to apply to the shallow parts of the gulf 

 as a whole, but only to areas where there is particular danger 

 of a heavy deposit of sediment. In places farther removed 

 from the mouths of rivers this danger will be done away with, 



