1913] Addkess of Peesidext X. A. S. Com. 53 



states, witliout this form of food. There were such men who 

 came to the assistance not only of the oyster but of other shell- 

 fish. In many instances, however, it would have been too late 

 with the oyster if it had not been previously demonstrated that 

 its cultivation was a commercial jDroposition, and this had been 

 taken up very extensively in those states where the natural rock 

 had been very nearly depleted. Besides producing oysters on 

 the made rock, another result of the cultivation of the oyster 

 has been that the natural rocks have in several states begun to 

 increase and become again very productive, which is undoubted- 

 ly due to the great quantity of spat that was produced by the 

 cultivated beds, and which settled on the natural rocks. 



Such recommendations as are made for the perpetuation and 

 cultivation of the oyster and the protection and perpetuation 

 of other shellfish can only be carried out by a state's taking the 

 problem and considering it as a state proposition. Where this 

 has been done the results have been most beneficial and gratify- 

 ing, and the oyster industry of these states has been revived and 

 become a very profitable one. There are, however, still many 

 states where the problem has not yet been successfully solved; 

 and it is found, upon investigation, that the reason for this 

 is that state legislators have not and are not now considering the 

 question as a state problem, but are permitting the local com- 

 munities to have enacted laws relative to the oyster industry, 

 and are not taking any steps from the standpoint of the state for 

 the protection of these shellfish. The result is, that in several 

 of the states, as: Xorth Carolina and Georgia, oystering has 

 reached a very low ebb, so low in fact that it is scarcely to be 

 reckoned with in considering the oyster industry of this country. 



The work of this Association is to consider and assist in the 

 solving of all problems that may come up in regard to the per- 

 petuation of the various shellfish ; and it has tried and is still 

 trying to bring every state that has shell fisheries to a realiza- 

 tion of the absolute necessity of the state taking up the problem 

 and passing adequate legislation covering the whole industry in 

 the state. The Association has had the hearty co-operation of 

 the United States Bureau of Fisheries in this work, and we 

 believe that the considerable progress that has been made in the 



