516 



NEW YORK. 



Lawful length, 18 inches. Wall-eyed pike, yel- 

 low bass, pike in Susquehanna river and tribu- 

 taries, between Nov. 1 and May 30. 



Long Island. Wildfowl (except geese and 

 brant), May 1 to Oct. 1. Plover, etc., Jan. 1 to 

 July 1. Woodcock and grouse, Jan. 1 to Nov. 1. 

 Trout, Sept. 1 to April 1. Salmon trout, land- 

 locked salmon, Oct. 1 to April 1. Black bass, 

 Jan. 1 to May 30. Hares, rabbits, Jan. 1 to Nov. 

 1. Deer, except from Nov. 10 to 16 inclusive. 

 Black and gray squirrels, Jan. 1 to Nov. 1. 



Oyster Culture. During 1887 an act to en- 

 courage oyster planting in Long Island Sound 

 was passed. Very little had been done in the 

 deep-sea cultivation of oysters before that time, 

 and the planters who supply the markets relied 

 almost entirely upon Virginia for sea oysters for 

 cultivation. Since then the industry has made 

 such rapid progress that now conservative esti- 

 mates place the value of the oysters lying on the 

 beds of Long Island Sound at $1,500,000, and 

 the number of men employed in the industry at 

 10,000. During the past year 116,000 barrels of 

 oysters, valued at $580,000, were shipped to Eu- 

 rope from New York city. There are about 

 400,000 acres of water area in the sound which 

 are available for oyster culture under the pro- 

 visions of the act of 1887. Of this number, up- 

 ward of 17,000 have been leased. The law pro- 

 vides that plots may be granted to the highest 

 bidder for a perpetual lease. So little has been 

 known about the industry that the greater num- 

 ber of these grants has not brought to the State 

 more than f 1 or $2 an acre. It has been demon- 

 strated, however, that while the business is at- 

 tended by considerable risk, there is an extraor- 

 dinary percentage of profit when it is at all suc- 

 cessful. For this reason recent bids for grants 

 have been somewhat higher. 



Political. On Feb. 24 a Democratic State 

 Convention met in Albany. Edward Murphy, 

 Jr., called the meeting to order, and subsequent- 

 ly Daniel E. Sickles was made permanent chair- 

 man. A platform containing the following 

 clauses was adopted : 



We are against the coinage of any silver dollar 

 which is not of the intrinsic value of every other 

 dollar of the United States. 



We therefore denounce the new Sherman silver 

 law, under which one tenth of our gold stock has 

 been exported, and all our silver output is dammed up 

 at home, as a false pretense, but actual hindrance of 

 return to free bimetallic coinage, and as tending only 

 to produce a change from one Kind of monometallism 

 to another. 



We therefore unite with the friends of honest money 

 everywhere in stigmatizing the Sherman progressive- 

 silver-basis law as no solution of the gold and silver 

 question, and as a fit appendix to the subsidy and 

 bounty swindle, the McKmley worse-than-war tariff, 

 the Elaine reciprocity humbug, the squandered sur- 

 plus, the advancing deficit, the defective census and 

 talsified representation, and there volutionary proced- 

 ures of the billion congress all justly condemned 

 by the people's great uprising last 'November (1890 ); 

 a verdict which, renewed next year (1892), will em- 

 power Democratic statesmen to guide the people's 

 councils and to execute thj people's will. 



In obedience to the mandate of the Demo- 

 cratic voters of New York, the delegates selected 

 by this convention were instructed to present to 

 the National Democratic Convention the name 

 of David B. Hill as their candidate for President 



of the United States " a Democrat who has led 

 his party from victory to victory for seven suc- 

 cessive years, and who has never known defeat." 



The said delegates were further instructed to 

 act as a unit in all matters intrusted to their 

 charge, said action to be determined by the vote 

 of a majority of the delegates. 



Delegates to the national convention were 

 chosen, including Roswell P. Flower, Edward 

 Murphy, Jr., Daniel E. Sickles, and Henry W. 

 Slocum, as delegates-at-large ; also 36 presiden- 

 tial electors were chosen. 



At the same time a gathering of anti-Hill 

 Democrats met in Albany and chose William I). 

 Locke as chairman. After issuing a protest 

 against the action of the Democratic State Con- 

 vention, they adjourned, to meet in Syracuse on 

 May 31, when, under the permanent chairman- 

 ship of John D. Kernan, a platform was adopted 

 containing the following clause : 



The Democratic party retains unshaken confidence 

 in the ability and lofty integrity of Grover Cleveland 

 and in his devotion to public duty. He is the choice 

 of an overwhelming majority 01 the Democrats of 

 New Yorkj and the country mav rely with confi- 

 dence on his ability to carry the State triumphantly 

 in November. We believe that by nominating him 

 to lead the party in the approaching contest for the 

 presidency, the national convention will carry out 

 the almost unanimous wish of the party, and best con- 

 sult the welfare of the country. We pledge ourselves 

 to support the candidates nominated in Chicago. The 

 delegation chosen by this convention is instructed to 

 act as a unit according to the determination of a ma- 

 jority of its members. 



Delegates were then chosen to represent this 

 convention at the national convention. 



Meanwhile a Republican State convention was 

 held in Albany on April 28. William A. Suther- 

 land called the convention to order, and White- 

 law Reid was made permanent chairman. In the 

 platform adopted the following clauses appear : 



In the success of this administration we recognize 

 the consummate ability of President Harrison and the 

 wisdom and sagacity of his Cabinet, and especially of 

 his chief Cabinet officer, James G. Elaine, whose 

 strong hold upon and intimate relationship with the 

 management of public affairs have been of lasting 

 benefit to the American people. 



Concerning local matters the following was 

 adopted : 



We denounce the Legislature thus feloniously con- 

 stituted for its violation of the principles of genuine 

 home rule in enacting notoriously partisan charter 

 amendments; for granting valuable franchises to po- 

 litical favorites without recompense to the people ; for 

 the attempted invasion of Central Park ; for its re- 

 moval of wholesome restrictions upon the liquor traf- 

 fic ; for its wasteful expenditure of the people's money, 

 which has increased the tax rate 44 per cent, over 

 that of last year ; for its utter failure to Keep its ante- 

 election pledges in behalf of ballot reform and tax re- 

 form; for its broken promises to the workingmenj 

 for its whitewashing of a guilty judge of the Court 

 of Appeals ; for its return to the methods of Tweed in 

 its iniquitous measure conferring tipon Tammany offi- 

 cials absolute control of the boards of election in- 

 spectors in the city of New York ; for constantly 

 legislating for its partisan aggrandizement against the 

 rural districts ; for its unconstitutional and fraudulent 

 midwinter enumeration, by which the population of 

 the rural districts was diminished and that of the 

 cities enormously increased, as the basis of an appor- 

 tionment by which the representation of .Republican 

 portions of the State in the Legislature and in Con- 



