134 



THE OYSTER. 



the population of the shores along which it has been 

 encouraged and protected. 



A writer about thirty years ago states that the pros- 

 perity and rapid increase of the population of Staten 

 Island are chiefly due to the encouragement and growth 

 of the oyster-planting industry. At Prince's Bay, on 

 that island, there has been some planting for more 

 than sixty years, but before the bottom was laid out 

 in private plantations there were very few persons liv- 

 ing there, and the land was almost uncultivated ; while 

 in 1853 the number of inhabitants who depended 

 directly upon this business for support had increased to 

 over 3000. 



! In some of the Northern States oyster-planting has 

 been carried on for many years. Ingersoll states that 

 oysters have been planted in York Bay, in New Jersey, 

 since 1810, and that a suit was brought in Shrewsbury, 

 New Jersey, at about the same date, to determine 

 whether a man has the exclusive right to the oysters 

 which he has planted. 



The history of the oyster industry of Rhode Island 

 furnishes an interesting illustration of the value of an 

 intelligent system of planting. 



In 1865 laws were passed allowing the leasing to 

 private citizens, for a term of years, at an annual rental 

 of $10 per acre, of the right to plant oysters on any 

 bottoms which are covered with water at low tide and 

 are not within any harbor line, to be used as a private 

 oyster fishery for the planting and cultivation of 

 oysters, whether these lands contain natural beds or 



