By U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
sources of supply. It was a serious misfortune that Dr. Field died 
shortly after completing and reporting upon his laboratory in- 
vestigations. 
THE OYSTER. 
INVESTIGATIONS OF OYSTER CULTURE. 
The investigation of oyster problems of Great South Bay and 
Long Island Sound was continued accor ding to the general plan of 
the year before. The work was begun by Dr. E. P. Churchill, as- 
sisted by J. S. Gutsell, but Dr. Churchill left the service in August 
and thereafter Mr. Gutsell continued it alone. Quantitative collec- 
tions and studies were made with the aid of the pumping equipment 
and selective screens developed by the Bureau investigators. 
At Great South Bay the plan comprised chiefly an intensive study 
of the distribution, life, and setting of the oyster larve. At fixed 
stations located over a considerable area of the best oyster @ erounds 
in the bay quantitative collections were made as in 1919. ‘In that 
year it had been found that certain of these stations were almost uni- 
formly superior to others in their yield of larve, and that the set 
at these stations was correspondingly more abundant. The work in 
1920 was planned to check up and enlarge on this evidence, to see if 
the general distribution of larvee was much the same year after year. 
Addition to our knowledge in other aspects was, of course, to be in- 
cluded. 
Unfortunately the season was a poor one. Oyster larve until 
after mid-July occurred scatteringly, at best in small numbers. The 
conditions indicated a very light set indeed. The one station which 
showed decided superiority was not located over oyster beds and 
offered no opportunity of determining a set. A return visit with 
inadequate apparatus late in August showed young oyster larvee in 
apparently fair abundance and indicated an unusually late spawning 
and a possible late set. 
In accordance with the scarcity of larve, a very light set was 
found in the fall; and corresponding apparently to the late spawn- 
ing, a set was found in the spring which had not attained sufficient 
size in the fall to be noticeable. In general these sets were so hght 
as to be commercial only to the extent of having sufficient value. to 
repay shifting. 
Thus support was given the hypothesis that a relation can be 
found between the observable abundance of larve and the amount 
of set, and that consequently a scarcity of larvee indicates that the 
great expense of “shelling” should be avoided. 
In Long Island Sound, where the oysters spawn later than in 
Great South Bay, the work was curtailed by the reduced personnel 
and was limited chiefly to the region between Milford and Bridge- 
port. Collecting was poor indeed except for a time in August, 
when moderate numbers of larve were obtained, particularly about 
Bridgeport. Something of a set was later reported there. Thus in the 
Sound, as in Great South Bay, there was little opportunity that season 
to obtain other than negative evidence as to the relation of the occur- 
rence of oyster larvee and the abundance and location of set. 
