CVI REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



The State is to be congratulated on having at last taken the initial 

 step toward restoring, on a proper basis, those extensive resources 

 which have been so rapidly depleted and which, by judicious manage- 

 ment, can be made to yield the State a large revenue. State officers 

 will be selected to act in conjunction with an engineer, who is to be 

 detailed by the Superintendent of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey, in running the necessary lines and preparing the maps required. 

 The careful investigations now being made by the U. S. Fish Com- 

 mission relative to the oyster- ground^ of Chesapeake Bay have been 

 accepted as the basis for the proposed delineations, so far as they apply 

 to the waters of Virginia, and may be finished in time to serve the 

 purposes of the State. Arrangements have also been made to allow 

 the State authorities the use of one of the Fish Commission launches 

 during the summer of 1892. 



The food of oysters. — With the object of obtaining some needed 

 information concerning the food of oysters, and the relations of oysters 

 to their environment in that respect, the services have been secured of 

 Dr. John P. Lotsy, of Johns Hopkins University, who will spend the 

 months of July, August, and September in making a study of this 

 subject in the vicinity of Hampton, Va. Dr. Lotsy is a native of the 

 Netherlands, where he had considerable experience in connection with 

 oyster cultural experiments before coming to this country. Questions 

 relative to the feeding of the oyster have, however, already received 

 much attention from employes of the Fish Commission, and several 

 important contributions bearing u^jou this subject will be found in its 

 publications. 



THE PRODUCTION OF SEED OYSTERS. 



Before the close of the fiscal year arrangements had been made with 

 Dr. John A. Ryder to continue some novel experiments respecting the 

 collecting of oyster spat by a new system, which had been given a par- 

 tial trial during the previous summer at the marine biological labora- 

 tory of the University of Pennsylvania, located at Sea Isle City, N. J. 

 The system in question consists in distributing oyster shells or other 

 materials suitable for the fixation of the spat over horizontally placed 

 wire screens, sui^ported on posts near the surface of the water in close 

 proximity to beds of oysters. The advantages claimed for this method 

 are, the more favorable position given to the collecting surfaces and the 

 fact that areas of muddy bottom not suitable for oyster planting can 

 also be utilized for this i)urpose. In case natural oyster beds are not 

 properly situated for supplying the spat desired, artificial beds can be 

 arranged on similar platforms, at a lower level than the collecting sur- 

 faces, during the spawning season. The cost of the plant is compara- 

 tively little, and the success met with in 1801 encourages the hope that 

 the experiments may lead to results of practical importance. 



