198 THE OYSTER. 



to increase the supply of food, by rearing domestic 

 sheep and cattle and poultry in the place of wild deer 

 and buffaloes and turkeys, and by cultivating the 

 ground instead of searching for the natural fruits and 

 seeds of the forests and swamps. 



It is not in a spirit of harsh criticism, but in the 

 hope that our people may be awakened to their own 

 interest, that we point out the similarity between the 

 veiws of our people and their legislators and the 

 opinions of savage races. We live in a highly civil- 

 ized age, and if we fail to grasp its spirit we shall go 

 to the wall before the oyster cultivators of the North- 

 ern States, and those of Virginia and North Carolina, 

 just as surely as the Indians have been exterminated 

 by the whites. We cannot resist the progress of events, 

 but we can control it if we will be wise in time. 



It is not essential that a patient should know the 

 nature and cause of his disease, but this knowledge is 

 of the greatest importance to his physician, and it is 

 of equal importance that the men who are called upon 

 to legislate for the preservation of our oysters should 

 clearly understand the true reason for their destruction. 



I state, then, in capital letters, that our beds are in 

 danger, 



BECAUSE THE DEMAND HAS OUTGROWN THE NATURAL 

 SUPPLY. 



There are only two possible remedies. Either we 

 must diminish the demand by killing the packing in- 



