OYSTER CULTURE EXPERIMENTS IN LOUISIANA. 11 



If, however, the ov8tor-})ljiiitin<; industry of the state assumes the 

 ultimate magnitude to which the natural advantages entitle it, the 

 defects in the surveys will lead to endless trouble and dispute. The 

 best bottom will be in demand, the leaseholds will become congested 

 in favorable localities, and their boundaries will have to be jealously 

 guarded, especially when the bottoms hold a valuable crop. Should 

 the grounds become as valuable as some of those in Rhode Island, for 

 instance, the matter of their exact location will assume importance, 

 and in the controversies that are sure to arise between adjoining 

 lessees on account of the necessarily impermanent nature of the 

 Avater boundary marks it will be highly essential to have for final 

 reference and adjudication permanent landmarks which can not be 

 questioned. With the surveys as now made and platted the time will 

 come when neither surveyor, judge, nor jury can intelligently pass 

 on some of the controversies that ma^'^ arise. 



The theoretically correct solution of this prospective difficulty 

 would be a topographical survey of the oyster regions, with per- 

 manent " monuments " at all, or at least the important, triangulation 

 stations. The whole system of leaseholds could then be brought into 

 relationship and the danger of overlapping and conflicting grants 

 Avould be eliminated. The water corners would be trigonometrically 

 referred to the established landmarks and the controverted boun- 

 daries could be at any time readily redetermined. A survey of this 

 character would be expensive, but if properly made it would have 

 enduring value. The survej'^ of the Maryland oyster grounds now 

 being made through the cooperation of the federal and state govern- 

 ments will be available for all time, with occasional replacement of 

 displaced or destroyed triangulation monuments. In the develop- 

 ment of the oyster industry its value will yearly grow more apparent. 



In the absence of an elaborate survey such as that outlined, some- 

 thing of permanence could be given to the present surveys if they 

 were correlated with durable landmarks established in the marshes. 

 Drain tiles, sunk for the greater part of their depth and filled with 

 concrete, appropriately marked at the top, located at sufficient dis- 

 tances from the shore to reduce their liability to being washed away, 

 would make excellent marks if they were included in the plats of 

 the survey. From time to time, as they became more generally dis- 

 tributed, the different groups could be connected by triangulation 

 and eventually cut in with the accurately established triangulation 

 stations of the Coast Survey. This would result in the gradual 

 establishment of a chart of the most important oyster-culture regions 

 and give some permanence to the surveys of the individual holdings. 

 It would require the expenditure of some additional labor and care 

 on the part of the field surveyors and general supervision by the 

 engineer of the commission. The slight additional cost of the sur- 



