34 



allowed to remain for a brief period before being taken to the 

 market. It has been found by the most successful culturists in 

 Virginia, Maryland and elsewhere that it pays to handle the oys- 

 ters a number of times before taking them to market, and that 

 they may be treated and improved like any other crop. Thus it 

 has been found profitable to prepare pieces of bottom for the re- 

 ception of seed ; to collect seed ; to plant it, and to allow it to reach 

 a saleable size. After this size has been attained, the oysters are 

 ready for the market, but their volumes can be so increased by the 

 bloating process which takes place in fresher water, that when 

 shucked, the yield is almost or quite double. The experience of a 

 well known firm at Hampton, Virginia, is a yield of 4 or 5 pints 

 per bushel from oysters when taken directly from the rocks where 

 they were planted as seed. The same oysters, however, when first 

 carried to a fattening ground yield 8 pints to the bushel. By this 

 means the yearly income of the house is increased from $20,000 to 

 $30,000 more than it would be if the oysters were not transported, 

 from the beds on which they grew to maturity, to the fattening 

 grounds. 



Though the natural conditions of Calcasieu Pass make it a good 

 place in which to collect seed, and though the Gulf near the mouth 

 of the river may turn out to be a good place for the establishment 

 of deep water fisheries it must not be thought that the success 

 achievable can be won without hard work and foresight. A great 

 many facts and circumstances must be taken into account and only 

 men who can afford to learn by experience should undertake any- 

 thing on a large scale. It is possible to make 25 per cent, on in- 

 vested capital by the rational cultivation of oysters, but to realize 

 such gain, oyster farmers must work on business principles and 

 get the utmost good out of every phase of their enterprise. This 

 they can do best by remembering that the crop of an oyster farm 

 is like a crop raised on land, for its value is in direct proportion to 

 the care and intelligence with which the farm is chosen and 

 operated. 



Gulf Biologica Station, 

 March 29th, 1904. 



