296 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



oyster business have been cited to sliow cause why they shoukl not be 

 curtailed or abolished as destructive. It has been proposed to restrict 

 the demand by prohibiting canning; to prohibit the use of this or that 

 kind of apparatus, or to interfere in various ways, with more or less 

 legitimate methods of meeting and increasing the demand. 



Vhe attempts that have been made to keep the demand upon the beds 

 within the limit of their fecundity have so far been failures, and such 

 attempts are also seen to be illogical when it can be sliown that the 

 reciprocal measure, increasing the supply, is j)erfectly feasible. 



The dictates of sound economics require that no eftbrt be made to 

 restrict the demand until it can be shown that efforts to increase the sup- 

 ply are futile. A growing demand for a product is the most trustworthy 

 indication of an Industry's prosperity, and the only rational manner in 

 which to bring the supply and demand into equilibrium is to increase 

 the former. Only after the failure of all eftbrts to save the supply from 

 total extinction, should a restriction be placed upon the demand. 



The close season has been a favorite measure in protective legisla- 

 tion, as it has been in most legislation looking to the perpetuation of 

 game and fish. It is usual to fix the close season during the spawning 

 months, upon the theory that the reproductive act should be allowed 

 to proceed unmolested. It really matters but little whether the oyster 

 is taken during the season of spawning or a month or two before; the 

 effect uijon the fishery is the same, as in either case the bed is deprived 

 of an individual capable of reproducing its kind. The only effect of a 

 close season, whenever occurring, is to reduce the time during which 

 the oyster is subject to attack from the oystermeii. Even this is of 

 little avail with the sedentary oyster, for it is possible for 365 men, 

 fishing ten days, to as effectually "clean up'' a bed as can be done by 

 10 men fishing throughout the year. This has been found to be the 

 practical result of a close season in some places; the first few days of 

 fishing removing so many oysters as to make it unprofitable to work 

 the beds during the rest of the year. 



The methods by which the increased demand resulting from a widen- 

 ing of the markets may be met will be treated of in another connection. 

 It may become necessary in some parts of this country, as in Europe, 

 to reserve the natural beds for the production of seed. Such a reser- 

 vation would naturally excite the strenuous opposition of the oystermen; 

 but should the industry ever be reduced to the desperate condition at 

 one time found in France, correspondingly desperate remedies must be 

 invoked. 



INCREASE OF SUPPLY BY ARTIFICIAL MEANS. 



In many countries in which oysters are an important item of food it 

 has been found necessary to give nature some assistance in order to 

 maintainor increase the sup j^ly of oysters available for the markets. 

 The direction in which this as sistance is rendered is governed by local 

 conditions, but in general it may be stated that all methods of oyster- 

 culture deijeud for their success upon the modification of the natural 



