I06 . ■ THE OYSTER. 



loss of all the money and labor expended, that more 

 than one planter has decided that it does not pay to 

 attempt to raise oysters upon shells, so long as he is 

 able to buy and stock his grounds with half-grown 

 seed — a decision which may be based upon sound 

 reasoning in respect to certain localities, but which 

 certainly will not apply to all of our northern coast. 



" The great drawback to East River oyster-plant- 

 ing, of every kind, is the abundance of enemies with 

 which the beds are infested. These consist of drum- 

 fish, skates, and, to a small degree, of various other 

 fishes; of certain sponges and invertebrates that do 

 slight damage, and of various boring molluscs, the 

 crushing winkle, and the insidious star-fish or sea-star. 

 It is the last-named plague that the planter dreads the 

 most, and the directly traceable harm it does amounts 

 to many tens of thousands of dollars annually in this 

 district alone. Indeed, it seems to have here its head- 

 quarters on the American oyster coast, where it has 

 utterly ruined many a man's whole year's work." 



IngersoU states that 20 bushels of shells laid down 

 anywhere in the upper part of Barnegat Bay, New 

 Jersey, will produce 100 bushels of seed oysters, but 

 that there is no protection for this industry, as popu- 

 lar construction makes such beds " natural ground." 



At Brookham Bay, off the south coast of Long 

 Island, in the region of the well-known ''blue point" 

 oysters, it has been the custom for several years to lay 

 down shells, scrap-tin, etc., for the attachment of the 

 young, and when this is done near any oyster-bed, or 

 whenever spawning oysters are planted among the 

 shells, there is rarely a failure to get plenty of young. 



