26 



OYSTER CULTURE EXPERIMENTS IN LOUISIANA. 



the following table of the specific gravities observed during four 

 calendar years : 



Specific Gravity Observations in Waters of St. Bernard Parish. 



Locality. 



1907 



1908. 



Lake Bor^ne 



Falsemouth Bay 

 Three-mile Bay. 

 Treasure Bay . . . 

 Big Mussel Bay. 



Eloi Bay 



Saw Bay 



Blind Bay 



Caligo Bay 



1.0008 

 1.0074 

 1.0070 



i.oioe 



1.0119 

 1.0125 

 1.0167 

 1.0193 



1.0200 



1.0041 

 1.0058 

 1.0054 

 1.0096 

 1.0113 

 1. 0150 

 1. 0155 

 1. 0162 

 1.0162 



1.0016 

 1.0041 



1.0051 

 1.0075 

 1.0083 

 1. 0125 

 1.0128 



1. 0159 

 1.0170 

 1. 0159 



In the northern localities the water is rather too fresh to produce 

 palatable oysters for shell stock, though this does not affect their 

 utility for shucking and canning purposes. In this region, as a 

 whole, oyster food is abundant, a large number of observations indi- 

 cating that it is about equal in this respect to that part of Placque- 

 mines Parish adjoining it, east of the river, and only exceeded by 

 the waters of Barataria Bay. It is considerably richer than either 

 Terrebonne Parish or that part of Placquemines Parish, as a whole, 

 lying about Bay Adam, Bayou Cook, and Bastien Bay. The richest 

 waters are Falsemouth Bay and Treasure Bay and the poorest those 

 lying near Three-mile Bayou. 



The depth of water ranges generally from 3 to 6 feet in the bays, 

 but is often much deeper in the bayous. The bottoms are generally 

 soft, in many places too soft to be used for oyster culture without 

 special preparation, but there are also considerable areas of hard or 

 moderately hard mud. Even the softest places may be made avail- 

 able by strewing them with shells, sand, or gravel, but there is un- 

 doubtedly enough naturally suitable bottom to make this unnecessary 

 for some time to come. 



For experimental purposes in this region there were selected two 

 localities not far apart but differing in all factors involved except- 

 ing that of salinity. The localities, the experiments, and the results 

 are described in the following: 



FALSEMOUTH BAY. 



Falsemouth Bay lies in the northwestern part of the Louisiana 

 marsh and communicates with Mississippi Sound by means of Nine- 

 mile Bayou, a channel from 100 to 300 yards in width, and with an 

 average depth of about 24 feet. A smaller, though deep, bayou 

 leads to Nine-mile Bay to the eastward, and there is Avide communi- 

 cation at the southeast end with the lower part of Nine-mile Bay 

 and the upper part of Treasure Bay. 



