10 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



every year. It is sold by tbe dredgers at 10 cents a load, and it costs from 10 to 15 cents a load to haul it. 

 Three hundred loads a day might be raised, if demanded. In the excavation of this fertilizer two features work 

 disadvantageously to the oyster. In the first place, the actual bottom is torn to pieces — the home destroyed and 

 the mollusks themselves eradicated. Secondly, the operation sets free great quantities of flue silt, which spreads 

 through the water far and -wide, falls upon the oysters, and smothers or chokes them. The bay has lost its ancient 

 purity, and is no longer a suitable place for oyster-habitation. When, however, the work of the mud-diggers is 

 completed, the excavation they leave is gradually taken possession of again by mollusks. This has happened 

 particularly at West river, near Charlottetown, where the whole bottom, for a long distance, was dredged up and 

 taken away, oysters and all, and it encourages belief that perhaps when Cedeque and the other bays are thoroughly 

 robbed of their manuring deposits, the desirable bivalves that once inhabited them will return to their ancient 

 haunts to begin a new era of existence and generation. 



Oyster-culture in the Provinces. — Nothing in the way of oyster-cultivation, properly speaking, has been 

 attempted in the Provinces, that I could learn of. When the oyster dealers in St. John find themselves over- 

 stocked in summer, they sometimes throw a lot of oysters overboard near Navy island, raking them up as they 

 are wanted. An attempt to plant some there several years ago, resulted in all being stolen within a few months. 

 Occasionally a schooner-load of oysters is brought down from Biictouche, Miramichi, or some other northern bay, 

 where they are of poor quality, and are dumped for a few months in Shediac bay to "fatten". The improvement 

 is said to be A-ery rapid and striking. Near Charlottetown, some years ago, a citizen took up a large quantity of 

 oysters from a distant part of the harbor and laid them down near his home, forming a bed convenient to his hand, 

 and the position of which was kept a secret in the family. A similar experiment in transplanting was made by 

 Judge W. H. Pope, of Summerside, two or three years ago, near New London, Prince Edward island, only upon 

 a more extensive scale and with a commercial view. His experiments did not wholly succeed, but seemed to show 

 satisfactorily that the improvement resulting from transplantment and care would be jirofitable, if attended to on 

 a large scale and in an enlightened way. 



Such desultory work seems to be all that has ever been attempted in the Provinces toward oyster-culture. No 

 seed-oysters have ever been sent southward or received from the United States. They could be procured for about 

 $2 a barrel at Shediac and Summerside, and there remain enough of the genuine Porier and Bedeque breeds to 

 start new beds of these varieties in favorable spots elsewhere. 



Efforts toward protection. — The danger of utter extinction which menaces the mainland beds is not a 

 new one. It was long ago i)ointed out that such a danger exists, and that measures ought to be taken to jneserve 

 to the colonies this rich food-i'esource which was being so rapidly wasted. Mr. Perley announced it to the govern- 

 ment in ISiO in these words : 



From the manuer in which the oyster-fishery of the gulf-shore is now being conducted, all the oysters of good quality will, in a few 

 years, be quite destroyed. The preservation of this fishery is of considerable importance, and it might be eli'ected as well by judicious 

 regulations and restrictions as by encouraging the formation of artiticial beds or layings in favourable situations. Several persons on 

 the coast intimated to the writer their desire to form new and extensive beds in the sea-water, by removing oysters from the mixed 

 water of the estuaries, where they are now almost worthless, if they could obtain an exclusive right to such beds when formed, and the 

 necessary enactments to prevent their being plundered. 



Feeling the importance of the matter. Judge Pope's experiment on Prince Edward island, already alluded to, 

 was made only in pursuit of his belief that the matter was practicable. He wrote to Professor Whiteaves in 1874 : 



The area of productive oyster-beds in the Dominion is comparatively limited and altogether inadequate to supply the demand for 

 oysters, which is now enormous, and which is increasing every year. Unless the existing beds be protected aud improved, aud new beds 

 formed, the day will soon come when tlie oyster-beds of the Dominion will cease to produce. « * » The rivers aud estuaries of this 

 island [Prince Edward] are admirably adapted for the cultivation of oysters. The oysters found in its bays are not to be excelled in 

 flavor, and if fished late in the autumn they will keep good for months. I see no reason why hundreds of thousands of acres of oyster- 

 beds should not be formed in these bays, which would produce vast quantities in quality much superior to the oysters of Virginia. The 

 material for the formation of such beds is at hand in the ancient ones ; the oysters with which to sow them could be had at little cost 

 dui'iug the war;u, calm days of summer. 



Professor Whiteaves adds his testimony in the following paragrajjh, which refers chiefly to the mainland: 

 Many once productive beds in various parts of the gulf now yield almost nothing, and there is too much reason to fear that, unless 

 precautionary measures are adopted, the oyster-fisheries of the Dominion will soon becomo a thing of the past. The raking of the beds 

 has been palpal)ly excessive .and wasteful ; no such thing iis cleansing the ground and scattering the sp.at during the close season has ever 

 been practiced ; the pollution of the ground by refuse of mills, by silting up, and a variety of other causes, has led to the inesent state of 

 ruin .and decay which we now see. Neglect, waste, and excessive cupidity have almost destroyed these oyster-beds, aud will ultimately 

 entirely do so, unless remedial measures are adopted. 



With the design of fostering the oyster product and industry, Mr. Yenning, inspector of fisheries in New 

 Brunswick, has made many attempts to induce the use of capital in this direction, and regulate the dredging by 

 legal measures. He tried hard to get the government to divide the bay of Shediac into two equal portions, and to 

 lease the oyster-privileges to responsible persons for a term of years, under regidations that vshoiild not admit of the 

 extiri)ation of the mollusks. Such a hue and cry was raised by the ignorant natives, however, thtit the project had 

 to be abandoned. He called a public meeting at Shediac and tried to represent how much it would be for their 

 advantage to cease their destructive, indiscriminate raking, but utterly without effect. "My grandfadder rake 



