190 THE OYSTER. 



use the natural beds chiefly as a supply of seed for 

 planting, and I believe that whenever the people of our 

 State are prepared to use our great natural advantages 

 for oyster culture, it will be wise to throw open the 

 natural beds in the summer time, but at present such 

 a measure would simply result in the depletion of the 

 beds, without any compensating advantage. 



Soon after the young oysters are born they fasten 

 themselves to stones, gravel, empty shells, living oys- 

 ters and other clean, hard substances. They are at 

 first so small and flat that they are in no danger of 

 injury by dredgers, and there is, therefore, no reason 

 why the taking of marketable oysters should not be 

 continued all summer if the large oysters could be 

 taken away without the young ones, but these are at 

 first so small that they are invisible, and for several 

 months they are too small to be removed from the 

 shells of larger oysters. As it is very difficult to 

 enforce culling laws, the opening of the public beds 

 immediately after the spawning season would cause 

 millions of the small oysters to be carried away on the 

 shells, and even if the culling laws could be enforced, 

 many of the small oysters would be carried away on 

 the large ones. 



This would be a great advantage if the small oys- 

 ters were used as seed for planting, but at present 

 most of them are destroyed. 



I therefore believe that, for the present at least, the 

 public beds should be closed for as long a time as 

 possible in the fall, in order to give the young oysters 

 time to grow large enough to render it possible to 

 detach them from the larger ones and from the shells. 



