86 AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY. 



failure in the supply of these mollusks for oui markets. These 

 two points are, first, that the natural oyster areas of the, State 

 are in bad condition and very much less in extent than they 

 were a score or more of years ago, and, second, that the loss in 

 the natural areas has been much more than made up in the for- 

 mation of planted beds, some of which occupy the localities of 

 natural areas, which have been exhausted of their natural sup- 

 plies, and have been repopulated by artificial means, and some 

 of whicli have been formed on territory that never was natural 

 oyster ground, and by reason of this increase in the amount of 

 territory upon which oysters are grown, a great many more 

 oysters are now sent into market eacli year than were thus ship- 

 ped some few years ago. This is true to a very large extent 

 of all the oyster regions of our State ; the natural areas have 

 been worked until, in many instances, they have been entirely 

 depleted, and in all cases very much lessened in productiveness ; 

 and then the planters have appropriated the exhausted lands for 

 planting purposes, and extended the planted areas outside of 

 the old bed limits, but some of the oyster regions show much 

 greater changes in this direction than the others. This is per- 

 haps more noted in the neighborlioods of Staten Island and 

 City Island than elsewhere, since these regions are not only 

 close to our great metropolitan markets, and therefore can be 

 drawn upon at short notice, but they have suffered more than 

 the others from the direct action of the refuse materials thrown 

 into the waters from the cities of New York, Brooklyn, Jersey 

 City and their suburbs. This has been a source of great injury^ 

 and where formerly many oysters were obtained from along the 

 shores of the lower bay, around the northern end of Staten 

 Island and along the East river, now tiiere are none to be got, 

 or if any can be secured, they are so contaminated with the 

 acids and filth of the waters that they are of no value as food. 

 This is an evil which can only be remedied by careful and con- 

 sistent legislation regarding the sewerage of the great cities and 

 the disposal of waste matters. 



In the neighborhood of City Island there were formerly many 

 large tracts of natural oyster beds, from whence great quanti- 

 ties of fine oysters were obtained ; but as there were n(i stringent 



