OYSTER CULTURE EXPERIMENTS IN LOUISIANA. 5 



legitimate requirements of a considerable corporation. The rental 

 is $1 per acre for the first fifteen j^ears of tlie term of the lease and 

 $2 per acre for the succeeding ten years, and in addition there is a tax 

 of 3 cents per barrel (Sj bushels) on all oysters marketed, whether 

 from the natural reefs or planted beds.*^ 



Partly on account of the unusually favorable natural conditions 

 under which the oyster industr}^ is conducted in Louisiana, but 

 largely by reason of the protection which the laws accord to the 

 natural beds and the encouragement which they extend to oyster 

 culture, the oyster fishery of the state has made extraordinary prog- 

 ress since the establishment of the commission. This is illustrated 

 in the following table: 



Pboduction of Oysters in Louisiana in Kkcent Years. 



a About. 



In the five years preceding the enactment of the first oyster law the 

 increase in the production, which was mainly from the natural beds, 

 was 20 per cent, while in the first five years following the passage 

 of the act, and after it had been improved and amended, the increase 

 was 154 per cent. 



The data for 1897 and 1902 are based upon the canvasses of the 

 Bureau of Fisheries, while those for subsequent years are the quan- 

 tities upon which were paid the " privilege tax," of which more 

 will be said hereafter. 



The increase between 1902 and 1903 can not be definitely accounted 

 for and may possibly be due to a difference in the method of gather- 

 ing the statistics, but from 1904 onward the increases are in part 

 due to the fostering of new oyster houses and the care of the natural 

 beds, but particularly to the fact that the private oyster bottoms 

 were coming into productiveness. The natural beds of the state 

 still produce in quantity more than the planted beds, but the dis- 

 parity is yearly becoming less, and in 1908 the value of oysters 

 marketed from planted grounds slightly exceeded that of those de- 

 rived from the natural beds. The quantity produced exceeded the 

 whole product of the state at the time of the investigation of 1898, 



<• The laws in full may be had Iiy application to the Louisiana Oyster Commission, 

 Maison Blanche Building, New Orleans, La. 



