320 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 

 INCREASE ON PLANTED BEDS. 



The percentage of seed oysters which reach maturity depends upon 

 local and seasonal conditions, upon the care with which the oysters 

 have been planted and worked, the size of the oysters when planted, 

 and the length of time which they have been left to lie. Under the 

 very best conditions there is a considerable mortality among the plants, 

 and while the individual oysters have increased greatly in size the loss 

 from one cause or another is such that there is by no means a corre- 

 sponding increase in the total quantity as measured in busliels. In some 

 places the planter is satisfied if he can market a bushel for each bushel 

 planted, depending for his profit upon the increased price brought by 

 the larger growth, but the usual average yield in many localities is two 

 or three times this amount, and cases are known where 500 bushels of 

 shells yielded 3,000 bushels of salable oysters. 



GROWING OYSTERS IN PONDS. 



In Europe pond culture has been commercially successful for many 

 years, and in some countries practically the entire i)roduct of oysters 

 has been derived from this source. Small inclosed ponds, claires, have 

 been used in France for greening and flavoring the oysters and parks 

 or partially inclosed ponds, admitting the tides, are used for growing 

 the oysters from seed, but all experiments heretofore made with a view, 

 of raising the seed in closed ponds have been attended with failure or 

 scanty success. 



Over a large area of our oyster-producing territory the difficulty of 

 obtaining seed is usually not a pressing one and an utter failure to 

 secure a set is rarely confronted upon more than occasional years. 

 Under such conditions, in several regions, the practice of sowing shells 

 has grown to great i)roportions, but with the vast increase in the planted 

 area an increasing difficulty has arisen in preparing the oysters for 

 market. Growth is slower than formerly, and during some seasons the 

 oysters either do not fatten at all or else so slowly that months are 

 wasted before they can be brought into proper condition. It is signifi- 

 cant that complaints of this difficulty come from regions which were at 

 one time famous for the fatness and flavor of their i^roduct and that 

 the trouble was not manifested until the poi)ulatiou of the beds far 

 outgrew that which was found in their natural condition. The causes 

 leading to the difficulty complained of have never been studied, but 

 the explanation will probably be found in the fact tliat the quantity of 

 oysters in such regions has outgrown the ability of the waters to supply 

 them with food. 



As is elsewhere pointed out, the rate of the growth depends primarily 

 upon the relative richness of the food sui^ply, and a quantity which 

 may be sufficient to cause a moderate growth may still be inadequate 

 to produce the degree of fatness upon which the oyster's toothsomeuess 

 so largely depends. 



