OYSTER-BEDS, DETERIORATION OF. 



709 



OTSTER-DUEDGE. 



fluid in order to be fertilized. Hence, the 

 more compact the bed, the greater the chance 

 of the ova and spermatozoa coming in contact. 

 If the mature, spawn-bearing oysters are very 

 much diminished in number, or widely sepa- 

 rated from each other, the chances of contact 

 are slight, and there is a failure of reproduc- 

 tion. But the removal of brood-oysters is not 

 the sum total, by any means, of the effects of 

 the dredging. Millions of young oysters, unfit 

 for market, are carried off sticking to the shells 

 of the mature oysters, and nearly as many 

 young are destroyed by being thrown from the 

 dredging-vessels upon soft or unfavorable bot- 

 toms. As, then, theoretically, dredging would 

 extend the beds and destroy their fecundity, it 

 may be asked whether this has been, practi- 

 cally, the case. 



The testimony of the fishermen is unani- 

 mous as to the extension of area, some of the 

 beds having doubled in size during the last 

 thirty years. They also testify that the beds 

 have materially deteriorated during this period. 



Stronger evidence, however, is afforded by in- 

 vestigation, made in 1879, in regard to areas in 

 Chesapeake Bay where oysters existed in a 

 locality known to very few fishermen. Hero 

 the oysters were found in clusters of from 

 three or four to twelve or fifteen, with clean, 

 white shells, and the spaces between the larger 

 ones filled with the young growth and barna- 

 cles. The mature oysters were long and nar- 

 row; whereas, in beds worked for some time, 

 oysters are usually single, or in clusters of two 

 or three, the animals are fatter and thicker, and 

 the sheila are dirty, with much mud or sand 

 clinging to them. These new beds were found 

 to be hard, and the clusters more firmly at- 

 tached to the bottom, while the beds in tin- 

 sound were soft, and the oysters easily obtained 

 by means of the dredge. All the oysters ex- 

 amined during the season of 1879 were meas- 

 ured and distributed into four classes, the first 

 two the mature, tho last two the young growth. 

 Over twenty thousand wero measured and clas- 

 sified, and the ratio of tho young growth to 



