126 THE OYSTER. 



ter Industry of the United States," quotes the state- 

 ment of Captain Cox, of New Jersey, that thirteen 

 dollars' worth of small " seed " oysters yielded, after 

 they had been planted for two years, oysters which 

 were sold for ;^i 1 1, besides about thirty bushels which 

 were used as food by the planter's family. 



Oyster-planting can be carried on only on private 

 grounds, and it cannot flourish in a community which 

 does not respect the right of the private owner to the 

 oysters which he has planted. 



The " five-acre law " of Maryland puts it within the 

 power of any resident of the State to obtain land for 

 this purpose, but the industry has never attained to 

 much importance here, partly on account of the 

 absence of sufficient protection, and partly no doubt 

 through the feeling that our large and apparently 

 inexhaustible natural beds render private enterprise 

 unnecessary. 



In Virginia more attention has been given to plant- 

 ing, and in some of the States north of us all the land 

 that is fit for the purpose is thus occupied. In many 

 States, as in Delaware, a great part of New Jersey, 

 and especially in Rhode Island, the natural beds have 

 been so heavily drawn upon that they long ago ceased 

 to furnish any marketable oysters, and they are now 

 valuable only as a source from which a supply of 

 small oysters can be gathered each year for planting. 

 The spat from the few mature oysters which escape 

 the fishermen, and that which drifts into the beds from 

 the planting grounds and from the scattered oysters 

 which still exist in protected places, keep up the sup- 

 ply from year to year, and its value is increased hun- 

 dreds of times by the planting system. 



