REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 9 



on the recommendation of the Bureau, has provided for a station 

 where mussel culture can be conducted on a scale commensurate with 

 the requirements, and it is hoped to have this in operation during the 

 ensuing year. The methods of mussel culture are such that they are 

 applicable to large streams and lakes as a function of the Government, 

 or to smaller inclosed bodies of water under private enterprise. They 

 can also be conducted with little additional expense in connection with 

 the rescue of fish from overflowed lands, which already constitutes an 

 important work of the Bureau in the Mississippi Valley. 



OYSTER WORK AND EXPERIMENTS. 



Louisiana oyster work. — The experiments in Louisiana undertaken 

 at the request of the Louisiana Oyster Commission have been at- 

 tended with the most gratifying success and appreciation of the 

 economic aspects of the work. The experimental beds in Barataria 

 Bay, where there has been no oyster industry heretofore, have yielded 

 at the extraordinary rate of from 1,500 to 2,000 bushels of marketable 

 oysters per acre at the end of two years from the time the cultch was 

 deposited on barren bottom. Practically all available bottom sur- 

 rounding the Bureau's beds has been leased from the State by pros- 

 pective oyster planters at the rate of $1 per acre. The Bureau's work 

 has also shown that seed oysters can be planted in certain parts of the 

 bay where young oysters can not be raised on account of the depre- 

 dations of the conch, and the indications are that in the course of a 

 few years the heretofore barren bottoms of Barataria Bay alone will 

 support an oyster industry having an annual value several times the 

 entire appropriations for the scientific inquiries of the Bureau. The 

 work has also demonstrated the fitness for oyster culture of thousands 

 of acres of barren bottom in other parts of Louisiana which will 

 eventually be taken up to the great profit of the State. It can 

 further be justly claimed that a large part of the present prosperity 

 of the oyster industry of Louisiana is due to the Bureau's efforts in 

 former years. The present work will be concluded during 1909, and 

 a report will probably be issued before the close of the fiscal year. 



Survey of Chesapeake Bay oyster grounds. — The cooperation of 

 the Bureau with the Coast and Geodetic Survey and the Maryland 

 Shell Fish Commission in a survey of the oyster grounds of Chesa- 

 peake Bay has been continued. The progress of this work during the 

 year has been satisfactory, and the survey when completed will be 

 of lasting value to the oyster industry, whatever may be the nature 

 of the oyster laws hereafter passed by the State. 



Oyster- fattening experiments at Lynnhaven Bay^ Virginia. — As 

 stated in the report for last year, these experiments have demon- 

 strated the entire feasibility of fattening oysters by the methods here- 

 tofore employed, but the expense attending the work has been too large 

 to make the method commercially successful unless the output of the 

 plant can be materially increased without any considerable increase 

 in the cost of operation. The Bureau believes that this can be done, 

 but the field is an entirely new one, with no even remotely related 

 experience to serve as a guide, and progress is necessarily slow, as 

 each step taken requires practically an entire season for its demon- 

 stration. During the fiscal year 1907 the quantity of oysters fattened 

 was slightly more than enough to pay for the increased expense had 



