32 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FI^H AND FISHERIES. 



There can be uo doubt that artificial productiou would succeed iu American 

 waters. The question is the practical one, whether it would, on an extended scale, 

 be less costly than the jirice of natural seed. This can only be deteiiuined by experi- 

 ments in a favorable locality. * * * The phase of European oyster-culture that 

 has as yet uo equivalent with us at home is that of the extreme value of land at 

 particular points. * * * The general need in the United States for area in which 

 to extend oyster-culture can hardly be regarded as immediate. At points, however, 

 where local cultural conditions are exceedingly favorable to rapid growth or fatten- 

 ing, it would seem a practical measure to bring into cultivation extended shore 

 strips near the zone of low-water mark by use of tidal parks of the least costly type. 

 * # * * ■" « » 



In those countries alone where government has absolutely preserved supplies of 

 spawning oysters does seed-culture flourish. The permanent closure of a small 

 natural ojster-bearing area has apparently done what has not been done by a close 

 season of the "R "-less months. * * » That the absolute reservation of oyster- 

 bearing land will have an immediate aud important influence upon the production 

 of seed in neighboring areas is a proposition which European experience seems to 

 demonstrate; aud the writer would suggest, as in his former report, that the matter 

 of reservation seems far more pertinent to the needs of the American industry than 

 auy attempts at artificial production. * * * Reservation is clearly a gov- 

 ernmental duty, whether State or local. The matter is not a new one, aud the 

 condensed experience of P'.urope merely emphasizes what, with various modifications 

 as to tenure, time, and degree, the authorities on this subject in the United States 

 have already advised. 



PHYSICAL INQUIRIES. 

 OFF COAST OF SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND AND THE MIDDLE STATES. 



As it was foimd impossible to coutiuue during the summer of 1892 the 

 elaborate series of observations carried on during- the previous three 

 years respecting the temperature and other physical observations off 

 the southern coast of New England, it was decided to have the schooner 

 Grampus make a thorough search for the tilefish in the localities where 

 it had abounded before the astonishing mortality :.n 1882, w^hich seemed 

 to have effected its extermination. Predicting its return upon the 

 results of the physical inquiries recently conducted, it was confidently 

 exi)ected that at least a few specimens would be captured, and such 

 proved to be the case. During the several trijjs made between the 

 region off' Marthas Vineyard and the latitude of the Delaware capes, 

 8 specimens were secured by means of cod trawls, some of them of very 

 fair size. The investigations of 1802, as w.ell as those of the previous 

 three years, were in charge of Prof. William Libbey, jr., of Princeton 

 College, the Commissioner of Fisheries also taking an active i)art in 

 the work and accompanying the Grampus in its earlier trips. 



The following notice of the results accomplished during the past 

 three years has been prepared by Professor Libbey : 



During the summers of 1890 and 1891 work was continued in the same area of water 

 off the southern New England coast as iu 1889, the same limitations, east and west, 

 and north and south, being observed, excejit that in 1890 the lines run by the Coast 

 Survey steamer Blake extended 20 miles farther out to sea than usual, or a total 

 distance of 150 miles. 



