1 64 THE OYSTER, 



by the whites. We cannot resist the progress of 

 events, but we can control it if we will be wise in time. 



It is not essential that a patient should know the 

 nature and cause of his disease, but this knowledge is 

 of the greatest importance to his physician, and it is 

 of equal importance that the men who are called upon 

 to legislate for the preservation of our oysters should 

 clearly understand the true reason for their destruction. 



I state, then, in capital letters, that our beds are in 

 danger, 



BECAUSE THE DEMAND HAS OUTGROWN THE NATURAL 



SUPPLY. 



There are only two possible remedies. Either we 

 must diminish the demand by killing the packing in- 

 dustry which has created it, or we must increase by 

 artificial means the natural supply of oysters. 



Even if our natural beds could be restored and 

 placed as they were twenty years ago, this would only 

 delay for a few years their final exhaustion, for the de- 

 mand is now far beyond the natural productive powers 

 of our waters, and it is growing greater every day. 



The daily papers often publish letters from oyster- 

 men who think that they can point out the true remedy, 

 and the proposed remedies are almost as numerous as 

 the authors, and nearly all the letters give statements 

 which, while they are perfectly true, are based upon 

 such narrow experience that they are of little or no 

 value as contributions to a broad, comprehensive view 

 of the problem. 



The tongmen know that most of the oysters have 

 been taken away by the dredgers, and they therefore 



