12 OYSTER CULTURE EXPERIMENTS IN LOUISIANA. 



veys over the present charges should be borne by the state rather 

 than by the lessee, and in the interest of the future some of the surplus 

 revenue of the oyster commission could be well devoted to such work. 

 That the difficulty of lack of accurate charting is not an imaginary 

 one is shewn by the experience of other states. In Maryland there 

 have been found plats and descriptions of leased oyster bottom which 

 were absolutely impossible of recognition, and to confirm the grants 

 as required under recent legislative enactment it was necessary to 

 run new lines arbitrarily. When Connecticut took charge of the 

 oyster grounds of Long Island Sound the same difficulty was en- 

 countered. Many of the leaseholds could not be located from the 

 surveys, and much time and money was expended in reconciling, 

 usually by compromise, the conflicting claims of adjoining lessees. 

 Eecently Delaware, with its comparatively small area of leased bot- 

 toms and well-surveyed shores, has been compelled to admit that 

 the leaseholds can not be located from the descriptions, and has un- 

 dertaken an accurate triangidation, the establishment of permanent 

 reference marks, and a resurvey of the whole area of leased bottom. 

 Louisiana's oyster industry is younger than those of the states men- 

 tioned, and conflicts and uncertainties in the location of private 

 holdings have not yet become pressing, but in view of the astonishing 

 development of oyster planting in the state the time is not distant 

 when the matter will become of commanding importance. 



EXPERIMENTS IN OYSTER CULTURE. 



Mention has been made previously of the methods of oyster culture 

 in Louisiana and the comparative insignificance, at present, of cultch 

 planting. The advantages, disadvantages, and ultimate limitation of 

 seed planting, unsuj^plemented by the other method, have been briefly 

 indicated. 



The planting of seed oysters from the natural beds owed its pre- 

 ponderance originally to the ease with which the stock could be ob- 

 tained and the controlling difficulty of obtaining shells and other 

 cultch, but at present it can be explained in many places solely by 

 that conservatism of the planters which inhibits their departure from 

 a known method to adopt one with which they are not familiar. 



In the region east of the Mississippi River the supply of seed on 

 the natural reefs is still large, and in many cases the beds produce 

 oysters which are fit only for that purpose or for canning. This is 

 particularly true of California Bay and contiguous waters in Pla- 

 quemines Parish. 



West of the Mississippi the conditions are wholly different. In 

 Plaquemines, Jefferson, and Lafourche parishes there are practically 

 no natural beds, and for many years there have been none from which 



