112 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



law in respect to shellfish, and in 1737 a third, owing to the too great demand made upon the beds around Staten 

 Island by crews of boats from New England, oSTew Jersey, and elsewhere, special protective legislation for these 

 waters was obtained from the colonial legislature. The preamble of this act of 1737, states the necessity for the 

 law, " since it has been found by daily experience that the Oyster-Beds lying at and near Eichmond County, 

 within this Colony, are wafted and Deftroyed by Strangers; the preventing of which will tend to the great Benefit 

 of the poor People and others inhabiting the aforefaid Colony." The Act therefore forbids any one " directly or 

 indirectly, to rake, * * * any Oyfters within this Colony, and put them on board any Canoe, Periauger, Flat, 

 Scow, Boat or other Veffel whatsoever, not wholly belonging to, and owned by, Perfons who live within the aforesaid 

 Colony ", under penalty of having the craft and all its contents seized. This law is almost an exact reproduction of 

 the New Jersey statute of 1719. It then names ten, citizens of Eichmond county — many of whose names still figure 

 in the oyster-business of Staten Island — as a police to carry out the law, and empowers them for that puri)ose. 

 The method of condemning and selling the goods seized are then iJrescribed. 



In 1775, New Jersey, finding that to have her beds and markets open till May 10, when New York stopped 

 work May 1, did not work well, changed her close-day to May 1 also; and in addition a new provision was enacted, 

 in view of the fact that "a Practice hath prevailed of raking and gathering great Quantities of Oysters with Intent 

 to burn the same for Lime only, whereby gi-eat Waste is made, and the Oyster-Beds thereby in danger of being 

 entirely destroyed". The penalties against an offender under this new law were very severe. 



Both states made their laws somewhat in a spirit of mischief and retaliation, for Jerseymen then, as ever 

 since, came in contact with Staten Island planters, often to the extent of mutual belligerency. 



Beginnings of oystee-ctjltuee, 1810-1835. — In spite of this protection, however, all the natural beds 

 gradually gave out, and it was long ago found necessary to supplement them by artificial means. The precise date 

 when oyster-planting began here it has been difficult to fix. Captain Cornelius Brittain, of Keyport, New Jersey, 

 tells me, that his father was the first man to plant in York bay, about 1810. This was at Bergen point. Opposite 

 his place, just below Bedloe's Island, was "Oyster Island", a flat covered by high water, where previously some 

 natural oysters used to be got, but hardly within Captain Brittain's remembrance. Captain Benj. Decker, of 

 Keyport, places the first bringing of Vii-giuia oysters to Prince's bay at "55 years ago", that is, in 1825. Long 

 before this, certainly as early as 181G, as I learn from a newspaper advertisement at that time, cargoes were brought 

 to New York from the Chesapeake ; at first, though, none were laid down to wait for growth. 



As to native oysters at Staten Island, I was told that they were certainly cultivated in Prince's bay at least 

 sixty years ago. In some localities on the opposite shore the industry is probably older, since a suit was brought 

 about seventy-five years ago, in old Shrewsbury township, New Jersey, originating in the question, whether or not 

 a man had exclusive right to the oysters he had planted. At Keyport, planting of native oysters is ])robably not 

 more than forty or fifty years old; and at Amboy, according to reijort, it was not until fifty years ago that any 

 beds were staked off. 



The use of these waters for planting occasioned an immediate effect upon the villages of the neighboring 

 coast which was very strikiug. "In fact," remarks a cotemporary chronicler, "the i)rosperity and rapid increase 

 of the po])ulation of that island [Staten] is owing, in a considerable degree, to the oyster-trade of this city. Before 

 Prince's bay was laid out in oyster-plantations there were very few persons living on it, and it was almost wholly 

 uncultivated * * *. A few years after the first beds were planted an extent of coast of from five to ten miles 

 was covered with oysters taken from the 'rocks' of Virginia." 



The number of men employed upon the beds in 1853, and who lived upon the island, with their families, was 

 computed at 3,000. 



State laws for the protection of otstee-planters. — To encourage this new productive-industry, which 

 had thus suddenly come into existence, New York and New Jersey both enacted laws calculated to protect the 

 planters. They have been the object of much change and amendment, as experience ripened the judgment and 

 new circumstances arose. 



At pi-esent the laws of New Y'ork applying to this subject and locality are as follows : 



General statutes : 



Forbidding any natural bed being staked off for private use, or being planted upon; forbidding any person, not 

 for six months previous a resident of the state, from taking any shellfish within the state (but au actual resident 

 may employ any non-resident); and prohibiting the use of any dredge weighing over 30 pounds, or operated by 

 steam-power. 



Special statutes : 



I. Asserting that no person not an inhabitant of the state may plant oysters in the waters surrounding Staten 

 Island, "except the consent of the owner first be obtained"; and no non-inhabitant may take oysters or clams 

 "from tiieir beds of natural growth in any of said waters". 



II. Forbidding dredging or di-agging for oysters in the neighborhood of Staten Island "upon beds of natural 

 growth of oysters (not planted) ". 



