50 THE OYSTER AND THE OYSTER INDUSTRY. 



paid to the State by the shipper. Some States require no license fee, 

 but the dealer pays a tax per bushel or gallon for oysters sold. This 

 nominally throws the tax on the dealer instead of the oysterman. 



Most vStatos make provision for leasing bottoms for the cultivation 

 of oysters at a small rental, $0.25 to $1 or $2 per acre, for a term of 

 years, the number of acres per person being limited. Provision is 

 usually made that the natural beds may not be leased, but must be 

 left open to the public. In some of the southern States there is very 

 little interest in leasing beds, there being sufficient oysters found on 

 the natural beds. In such States there is little or no planting done, 

 except a limited amount by the State in the effort to build up certain 

 natural bods. 



The health authorities of most of the States provide certain regu- 

 lations requiring that oyster beds be located at safe distances from 

 sources of contamination, such as sewers, etc., and that oysters must 

 pass certain rigid inspection tests for bacterial content before l^eing 

 placed on the market. The Federal Government also inspects oys- 

 ters which enter into interstate commerce. 



There are many other minor regulations peculiar to the different 

 States and growing out of special conditions prevailing in each. The 

 details of these may be secured from the State shellfish commissions 

 of the various States. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



For the benefit of those desiring more detailed information relating to the American 

 oyster of the eastern coast than could be given in a publication of this sort., there is 

 appended the following brief list of literature. This includes only some of the more 

 important researches on this subject, together with certain recent papers which show 

 the present trend of oyster investigations. 



Belding, D. L. 



1912. A report upon the quahaug and oyster fisheries of Massachusetts. The 

 Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Wright and Potter, State Printers, 

 Boston. (Treats of the life history of the oyster, a study of the distribu- 

 tion of the larvse, and methods of oyster cultiire in Massachusetts.) 

 Brooks, W. K. 



1880. Development of the American oyster. Studies from the Biological 

 Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University, No. IV, 3880, pp. 1 to 81, 10 pis. 

 Baltimore. (Dr. Brooks's original paper in which the development of 

 the American oyster from the egg to the free-swimming larva with a 

 shell is described for the first time. Standard authority for the ground 

 it covers.) 



1905. The oyster ; a popular summary of a scientific study . 2d and rev . ed . The 

 Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore. (Semipopular account of the anatomy, 

 development, and habits of the oyster and suggestions for methods of 

 oyster culture in Chesapeake Bay.) 

 Churchill, E. P. jr., and Outsell, J. S. 



The investigation of the oyster larvaj of Great South Bay. Forthceming 



report, U. S. Bureau of Fisheries. (Describes methods for making col- 

 lections and surveys of the distribution of oyster larvse with respect to 

 placing cultch and the results of the application of these methods to a 

 particular region.) 



COKER, R. E. 



1907. Experiments in oyster culture in Pamlico Sound, N. C. North Carolina 

 Geological and Economic Survey, Bulletin No. 15. Raleigh. (Describes 

 experiments showing that the planting of both seed oysters and cultch 

 could be profitably undertaken in North Carolina if State laws provided 

 for leasing of ground and protection of lessee.) 

 Danglade, Ernest. 



1917. Condition and extent of the natural oyster beds and barren bottoms in the 

 vicinity of Apalachicola, Fla. Appendix V, Report, _U. S. Commis- 

 sioner of Fisheries, 1916, 68 pp., 7 pis., 1 chart. Washington. 



