THE OYSTER, 1 63 



The contrast between the views upon the oyster 

 question which are now prevalent among our people, 

 and those which come from a broad-minded considera- 

 tion of the question in all its relations, can be illus- 

 trated by an example. The uncivilized Indians are 

 able to supply all their wants from the natural re- 

 sources of their hunting-grounds, but as population 

 increases, food grows scarcer and hard to procure, and 

 it soon becomes evident that the natural supply is 

 not enough. The first impulse, in such an emergency, 

 is to restrict the demand, by driving away or starving 

 out the superfluous population ; and if savage tribes 

 were able to enact and enforce laws, they would no 

 doubt try to preserve their game by laws restricting 

 the quantity to be killed, or by laws forbidding the use 

 of improved appliances for capturing it. 



Civilized races have long recognized the fact that 

 the true remedy is not to limit the demand, but rather 

 to increase the supply of food, by rearing domestic 

 sheep and cattle and poultry in the place of wild deer 

 and buffaloes and turkeys, and by cultivating the 

 ground instead of searching for the natural fruits and 

 seeds of the forests and swamps. 



It is not in a spirit of harsh criticism, but in the 

 hope that our people may be awakened to their own 

 interest, that we point out the similarity between the 

 views of our people and their legislators and the 

 opinions of savage races. We live in a highly civil- 

 ized age, and if we fail to grasp its spirit we shall go 

 to the wall before the oyster cultivators of the North- 

 ern States, and those of Virginia and North Carolina, 

 just as surely as the Indians have been exterminated 



