60 DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVAL SERVICE 
7 GEORGE \V, A. 1917 
year, when he markets the entire crop on b. In case there has been annual spatting 
on this ground, he culls off the immature oysters and places them, not on c but on 
the plots where oysters of similar ages are found. Thus ¢ is cleared to receive the 
next crop that is raised on a. 
From thence on, he has an annual income, harvesting one of his plots yearly and 
replanting from his seed;raising ground. 
We have gone into this detail with a purpose. This method of farming is the 
highest form of specialization, and should give the highest possible returns. Now 
please note well: each year the farmer harvests only one-fifth of his farm, and one- 
fifth of his growing crops. If he kept the entire farm like a natural bed, taking off 
an annual crop from the whole area, it is evident he could not do so well because all 
the generations would be intermixed and competing on those parts where there was 
most propagation, and on other parts less favourably situated, the propagation would 
not be at the maximum rate, but at a rate that would greatly reduce the annual pro- 
duct of marketable'oysters. At the very best, he could not harvest as much as a fifth 
of his crop, and he would have to use better methods than those now in use on the 
natural beds, to keep his oyster bed from depletion. 
Oyster farming resembles truck gardening in some respects, but differs in need- 
ing several years to mature the crop. On a mixed bed, the best returns come from 
removing annually as many oysters as can be spared, and not by introducing a system 
of open and close seasons. It is evident that what is good treatment for a mixed bed 
under private ownership, will be best for a similar bed under public ownership. There 
ean be but one conclusion here, viz., that if natural beds are to be conserved, they 
should be under the supervision of an expert, and should receive plantings of cultch 
at the proper times. The expert must determine just how many oysters may be annu- 
ally removed. 
THE FATE OF DEPLETED BEDS. 
Under a system of private oyster culture, it is necessary for planters who have 
little or no propagating ground to obtain their seed from natural beds. This leads 
to an abrogation of the prohibitions against taking immature oysters. Then the 
fishermen will market their catch at home, for planting in waters more or less adja- 
cent to the public beds. The inevitable result will be to render the latter as barren 
as possible. When both cultch and oysters are gone, the bed is extinguished. But 
in this ease, if cultch be placed on the bed it is as productive as ever, up to the limit 
of the supply of cultch. This is due to the fact that the oysters which have been 
removed are still growing and spawning in neighbouring waters, so that a supply of 
spat is brought to the old grounds. The fishermen will harvest this -rop of spat, and 
sell to the planter, or plant it themselves on their own farms; and history shows they 
will as zealously guard rights to such beds as they formerly did where they were con- 
fined to harvesting mature oysters only. As no one puts cultch on such beds, it is 
plain that however much spat may be present in the water derived from the private 
grounds, the beds will last only as long as the cultch naturally present will last, and 
that the production will be only as much as the available percentage of cultch present. 
Inevitably such beds become “barren” bottoms and open to leasing. There can be 
only one way of escape, and that is for the fishermen to form a co-operative society _ 
to work the public beds under a mutual agreement. 
But this, of course, cannot be done, because others of the public than the fisher- 
men, are also owners. Fishermen have been offered first chance in taking out leases 
of what they considered to be public ground, and have refused because they know that 
if once this right is granted, all or nearly all of the public grounds will ultimately 
come into the ownership of capitalists. So here we have a special phase of the old 
struggle between capital and labour. It is not our purpose to more than touch on the 
skirts of the matter that is political rather than biological, but still is vitally involved 
in any scheme of oyster conservation. 
