OYSTER PROPAGATION IN P.E.I. 59 
SESSIONAL PAPER No. 38a 
ranks of the oysters are restored by fresh cultch, under whatever rate the adults are 
removed, so long as the remaining oysters furnish sufficient spat. In case a 5 year- 
old oyster is marketed, then, without culture, if so large a proportion as a fifth of the 
product on the bed be taken each year, nature would not be able to replace this com- 
pletely, for reasons already explained. Yet the demand on the restored bed might be 
so great that half of the oysters would be removed onee year, two-thirds of the 
remainder the next, plus any natural increase, and so on. Thus the old story of 
gradual depletion would be repeated. For the first two years after a bed is opened, 
the production would be double or treble what it was before the bed was closed, but 
it soon drops back to the small figures. Now, calculating that there is no harvesting 
tor the five years during which the bed has been closed, and suppose that in five years it 
must be closed again, we see that in the course of ten years the average yearly pro- 
duct is equal to the minimum harvest. There is no gain in production, and the only 
advantage is the saving of the oyster bed—a bed greatly depleted and not yielding 
its full capacity. The fact is, that a natural bed yields the highest food production 
when all the oysters above a certain size are removed annually, and an equivalent ot 
ceultch is added. But such a bed gives the highest possible yield of oysters if it is 
used solely as a propagating bed, the seed being sold to oyster planters to mature 
for market on ground that could not be used for propagation. This is an important 
matter, and we need to go into it from the point of view of scientific oyster culture. 
EFFICIENT Use oF OysteR GROUND. 
Suitable localities for propagation and growth may in general be occupied by 
(1) natural beds, (2). under artificial oyster culture a certain additional area used 
for propagation and growth, and (3) an additional area for growth only, and (4) in 
a still further area, oysters might live for a while without growth. Area No. 4 is 
useful for storage only; Nos. 1 and 2 are so nearly alike, biologically, that fishermen 
have contended, sometimes successfully, that they are alike legally, so that farmers 
who had made such areas productive, were robbed of the fruits of their labour. When 
we realize that area No. 2 would be barren but for the labour of man, we must justly 
conclude that from a legal point of view they are radically different from natural 
beds, however much they may resemble them biologically. 
Assuming that a farmer owns only areas like No. 3, then he cannot produce his 
ewn oyster seed, and must secure it in various degrees of development, from either 
the fishermen who harvest No. 1 or from farmers who own areas No. 2. His problem 
becomes this: Which ventures bring the best returns, the purchase and cultivation of 
oyster seed requiring one, or two, or three, or four years, to mature for market? Tf 
there is a law preventing the fishermen from removing oysters under marketable size 
from natural beds, then the farmer of No. 3 is dependent on what he can secure from 
the cultivators of No. 2. 
Let us next consider the culture of ground No. 2. ‘As this is suitable for propa- 
gation, the owner can catch his own seed and is thus independent of the public beds. 
His ground is also suitable for growth, and so his problem is to find out which pays 
better, either to keep the seed on the ground where caught, until it is marketable, 
or to sell it at the age of one, two, or three, or four years, to owners of No. 3. In 
the former case, his farm will resemble a public bed, biologically speaking, but he can 
handle the situation to his own best interests, with his best judgment, and not under 
the restrictions pertaining to public fishing. He will remove each year the right 
number of marketable oysters, replacing them at the proper time by fresh cultch. 
He may do better: he may divide his ground into five plots—a, b, c, d, e. Let a 
represent the plot that catches the best set of spat. Each year, for four years, he 
will remove all the spat from a and plant them successively upon ), c, d, e, respec- 
tively, reshelling a at the proper times. He gets no pecuniary returns until the fifth 
