OYSTER CULTURE EXPERIMENTS IN LOUISIANA. 31 



It is believed that over a large part of the bay the bottom is suffi- 

 ciently firm to permit the use of light dredges on the planted beds. 

 In water so shallow as that in Falsemouth Bay the dredge, as com- 

 pared with tongs, is not so economical as in deeper water, but it is 

 believed that it would be cheaper to operate in case of a scarcity of 

 labor. 



In Falsemouth Bay, as everywhere else, however, there is a limit 

 to the quantity of good oysters that can be produced, and should 

 the planting industry be established there care should be exercised 

 that neither the density of growth nor the area planted should be- 

 come excessive. The desire of persons already established to grow 

 as many oysters as possible on a given area, and the equally strong 

 desire of prospective planters to establish themselves in places 

 where others have been successful has more than once brought diffi- 

 culties to all. 



THREE-MILE AND NINE-MILE BAYS. 



Three-mile Bay and its contiguous waters constitute the most im- 

 portant oyster region of St. Bernard Parish. Three-mile Bayou 

 is a broad, deep passage connecting Mississippi Sound with the inte- 

 rior of the Louisiana marsh, and the vessels engaged in carrying oys- 

 ters to the oyster houses and canneries on the mainland lie in the 

 sheltered Avaters at its inner end to receive the cargoes brought there 

 by the luggers engaged in oystering in the adjacent bays and bayous. 



In 1905 a large shucking house was erected on the shores of this 

 bay, with the purpose of avoiding the transportation of the bulky, 

 unshucked oysters to the mainland and the return of the shells for 

 planting on the large area which the operating company had leased 

 for that purpose in the waters adjacent to the establishment. Owing 

 to the difficulty of obtaining employees to work in a locality so re- 

 mote from settlement, and perhaps to other causes not stated, this 

 establishment Avas soon abandoned. In addition to the bottom held 

 by this company there are several thousand acres under lease in this 

 vicinity and practically all of the leases issued in St. Bernard Parish, 

 are in these or immediately adjacent waters. 



It is an interesting observation that these planters have overlooked 

 the advantages of the near-by bottoms in Falsemouth Bay to take up 

 areas which are in almost every respect inferior, this action being 

 dictated by the existence of natural beds in the one region and their 

 absence in the other. The fact has been overlooked that the presence 

 or absence of oysters is in many cases conditioned solely by the pres- 

 ence or absence of clean, firm bodies to which the young may attach. 

 Oyster culture iii this region has consisted partly of planting seed 



