1 66 THE OYSTER, 



of confusion, all students of the subject are agreed as 

 to the cause of the mischief As Lieutenant Winslow 

 well said in 1883, not only must the fecundity of the 

 beds be preserved, but the market supply must also 

 be kept up to the present demand, if not actually in- 

 creased ; and is a cessation of dredging likely to ac- 

 complish the latter end, when at present the vast fleet 

 of pungies and canoes are straining every rope and 

 windlass and openly violating every law of two power- 

 ful States in order to find oysters in the required num- 

 bers ? The truth is that the Chesapeake beds are no 

 longer equal to the demands made upon them. Some 

 policy must be adopted which will supplement the sup- 

 ply granted by nature, or else the supply will surely 

 fail. 



No mere restriction of the fishing can possibly ac- 

 complish the desired end. It may prevent the extinc- 

 tion of the beds as they are now, though that is doubt- 

 ful. It certainly will not relieve in the least the pres- 

 ent condition of the market. What should be done is 

 to adopt a policy similar in essential features to that 

 of Connecticut. The fishery of that State is one of the 

 few instances of recuperation on record. I know of 

 many destroyed oyster fisheries, and I know of a few 

 that have been rebuilt, and I find one cause common 

 to all failures and as common to all successes. In the 

 first instance, the fishery has been common property, 

 its preservation everybody's business — that is, no- 

 body's — and consequently it has not been preserved. 

 In the second instance, the fishery has been conducted 

 and owned by persons singly and together as private 

 property ; it has been this, that or the other man's 



