PRESENT CONDITION 
OF THE 
EASTERN OYSTER EXPERIMENT. 
BroLtoaicaL LABORATORY, ) 
UNIVERSITY OF OREGON, 
EuGENE, January 30, 1900. j 
His Excellency, T. T. Geer, Salem, Oregon: 
I take pleasure in presenting to you herewith a report on 
the status of the Eastern Oyster experiment, conditions of the 
native oyster industry, etc., and include several tables of 
densities and water temperatures taken within the last three 
years, and mailed to Washington, D. C., but not hitherto 
published here. 
I should like to emphasize at the very beginning of the re- 
port a few points which I regard as important, viz. : 
1. I have beeen very careful in this work to state to the public 
as facts only what we have actually found to be true, and have 
been extremely conservative in statements which might lead our 
citizens to expect immediate results. 
2. We know that the introduced oyster flourishes, grows with 
extreme rapidity, and soon becomes an excellent marketable product. 
3. We know that they spawn here. 
4. We have found a few young oysters undoubtedly hatched in 
Yaquina Bay. 
Public opinion appears to have decided, with questionable 
propriety, that, as far as successful propagation is concerned, 
the experiment is a failure, and many of the oystermen of 
Yaquina Bay, being intensely practical and not at all scien- 
tific, share this view. Similar work on the Atlantic Coast 
(I refer to the experiments of John A. Ryder, see Report of 
Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries for 1885), demonstrating 
that oyster spat can be obtained in enormous amounts by resorting 
to pond culture, prove that we have no right to draw hasty conclu- 
sions as regards our work here. 
