THE OYSTER AND THE OYSTER INDUSTRY. 49 



heat. If tlie temperature is too liigh, the shells are likely to turn 

 yellow, and if they are not sufficiently dried they may become soft. 

 If they have been sheltered from the weather and are thoroughly dry 

 the drying process may be dispensed with. After passing through 

 the drier they are carried by a conveyer to the crusher and from 

 there to the screen, which is usually of the revolving type and made of 

 various-sized mesh to separate the crushed shells into several grades 

 or sizes. 



In Plate XXIX, figure 2, shells are being loaded on cars for road 

 making. In some cases the shells are partially crushed before being 

 put on the roads ; in other cases they are put on whole and are worn 

 down by the traffic. Plate V, figure 1, shows shells being loaded on 

 a scow for planting to catch set. 



The shell heaps are cleaned up annually. Most of the shells are 

 used for one of the above purposes. The shell ])iles shown in the fig- 

 ures convey but a faint notion of the actual vast bulk of the oyster 

 crop taken annually from the waters of the United States. 



LEGAL REGULATIONS. 



In each State in which there is an oyster industry there are certain 

 regulations for its conduct, provided by State law and administered 

 by officers and inspectors, appointed in nearly aU cases by a State 

 fish or oyster commissioner or president of a State conservation com- 

 mission. 



The regulations, while necessarily differing widely to meet the 

 varying conditions, usually provide for a system of surveying and 

 staking off witli conspicuous buoys or markers the various beds 

 leased or owned by the planters and the "natural" beds, the latter 

 being those which have grown up naturally and which are open to 

 the pubhc. In some States, where there are many leased or privately 

 owned beds, this survejang is very carefully attended to, and accu- 

 rate maps of the oyster beds are provided. In others, especially 

 those in which there are few or no leased beds, the surveys are poorly 

 cared for, and no maps are kept. 



The legal season in which oysters may be taken for market is 

 usually restricted to the months of September to April, inclusive. 

 The oyster is thus not interfered with during the spawning season, 

 which occurs in the summer. 



A cull law is usually provided by which oysters under a certain 

 size — 2i or 3 inches generall}^ — may not be taken except for seed, 

 but must be thrown back on the beds from which lifted. Some States 

 allow only sailboats and hand dredges to work on natural beds, 

 as in Long Island Sound; some forbid dredging of any sort, all 

 oysters being taken with tongs ; some allow dredging only on leased 

 beds; some, only in water of a certain depth; and some allow 

 engine-driven dredges to be used on boats propelled by sails. 



In most States only a legal resident may take oysters from the 

 waters, and a license fee must usually be paid. In some cases oysters 

 can not be shipped from the State in the shell, except for seed. This 

 compels the estabhshment of oyster houses withm the State and the 

 retention of capital in that State. In others, as Louisiana, the oys- 

 ters may be shipped out in the shell, but a tax per bushel must be 



