THE OYSTER. I 27 



The industry does not require a large capital, and it 

 can be carried on with profit on a very small scale, 

 although the oysters need constant and intelligent at- 

 tention. In all places where it has been employed it 

 has added greatly to the prosperity of the communities 

 which have engaged in it, and has greatly increased 

 the population of the shores along which it has been 

 encouraged and protected. 



A writer about thirty years ago states that the pros- 

 perity and rapid increase of the population of Staten 

 Island are chiefly due to the encouragement and growth 

 of the oyster-planting industry. At Prince's Bay, on 

 that island, there has been some planting for more 

 than sixty years, but before the bottom was laid out 

 in private plantations there were very few persons liv- 

 ing there, and the land was almost uncultivated ; while 

 in 1853 th^ number of inhabitants who depended 

 directly upon this business for support had increased 

 to over 3000. 



In some of the Northern States oyster-planting has 

 been in existence for many years. Ingersoll states 

 that oysters have been planted in York Bay, in New 

 Jersey, since 18 10, and that a suit was brought in 

 Shrewsbury, New Jersey, at about the same date, to 

 determine whether a man has the exclusive right to 

 the oysters which he has planted. 



The history of the oyster industry of Rhode Island 

 furnishes an interesting illustration of the value of an 

 intelligent system of planting. 



In 1865 laws were passed allowing the leasing to 

 private citizens, for a term of years, at an annual rental 

 of ;$io per acre, of the right to plant oysters on any 



