248 Our Food Mollusks 



oysters had been covered with sand in quantities suffi- 

 cient to kill them. 



But it was shown with equal certainty that the beds 

 had been reduced, and in some cases almost completely 

 destroyed, by excessive dredging, and that this had been 

 much more harmful than the storms. It was stated in 

 one of the reports on this investigation that for two or 

 three years everything that came up in the dredges of the 

 oystermen had been taken on board and carried to the can- 

 neries, where the culling had been done. Culled shells, 

 often bearing young oysters, had been heaped on the 

 shore in great piles, and yet the law provided that culling 

 should be done where oysters were dredged, empty shells 

 and small oysters to be returned to the bottom. The re- 

 sponsibility for this lawlessness rested largely on the state 

 authorities, for no attempt had been made to enforce the 

 law. A fairly good harvest is still marketed each year, 

 but the cull law is not strictly enforced, and the natural 

 beds are still failing. 



True oyster culture is not practised in the state. Arti- 

 ficial beds had been constructed in a river near Beaufort 

 as early as 1840, and subsequently many attempts were 

 made to rear oysters on bottoms selected for the purpose. 

 This was not done with the idea of producing oysters for 

 market, but only for private consumption. The small 

 plots were spoken of as " oyster gardens," and the term 

 has been retained locally and applied to all artificial 

 beds. Since 1872 private beds have been authorized by 

 law. 



The earlier attempts at oyster culture were naturally 

 confined to the rivers and small bays along the shores. 

 They were conducted on a very small scale, and appar- 

 ently were never systematically or consistently carried 



