REPORT OP COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 135 



Following" is a table showing the quantity and value of the market 

 and seed oysters taken from public and private grounds in 1S92: 



The business of planting seed oysters and of placing various kinds 

 of shells on the oyster-grounds for the purpose of furnishing a suitable 

 place for the attachment of the oyster spat is very extensive. The use 

 of crushed stone and gravel for the latter purpose is also resorted to 

 in some pails of the State. The quantity and value of the seed, 

 shells, and stone deposited on the grounds in 1892 are given in the 

 following table; 100,000 bushels of the seed sown, valued at $62,260, 

 represented small oysters brought from the South. 



The most northern locality on the New England coast where any 

 form of oyster-culture is practiced is in the mouth of Parker Biver. at 

 Newburyport, Mass., where 12 acres are under cultivation. In 1892 

 1,500 bushels of oysters, costing $1 per bushel, were planted. When 

 taken up they amounted to 1,800 bushels, which were sold at retail in 

 Newburyport for $2,700. Mr. Hall, field agent, reports as follows on 

 the oyster business at this place: 



This is not a natural oyster region. The business is very small, and there is no 

 prospect that it will ever increase. The oysters are planted in April and taken up 

 during the following summer and fall. The bottom is hard mud. Sea cabbage (an 

 alga) grows on portions of the beds. The oystermen believe it is beneficial to the 

 oysters. The seed oysters, which come from Barnstable Bay, are large when 

 planted. After lying on the beds one season they open 1 gallon to the bushel. No 

 seed oysters are produced on the beds, and those brought from Barnstable Bay cost 

 too much to render competition practicable on the part of the producers at Newbury- 

 port, as market oysters can be obtained in Boston from Virginia, Maryland, Rhode 

 Island, and elsewhere more cheaply than they can be raised at Xewburyport. 



On the southern part of the Massachusetts coast, the principal places 

 where the oyster fishery is carried on are Barnstable Bay and Wellfleet 

 Bay, on the northern side of the Cape Cod Peninsula; Oyster Pond 

 and Oyster Pond River, at Chatham, on the east side of the cape; 

 Cotuit Harbor and Lewis Bay, arms of Vineyard Sound, which washes 



