THE OYSTER. 199 



dustry which has created it, or we must increase by 

 artificial means the natural supply of oysters. 



Even if our natural beds could be restored and 

 placed as they were twenty years ago, this would only 

 delay for a few years their final exhaustion, for the de- 

 mand is now far beyond the natural productive powers 

 of our waters, and it is growing greater every day. 



The daily papers often publish letters from oyster- 

 men who think that they can point out the true remedy f 

 and the proposed remedies are almost as numerous as 

 the authors, and nearly all the letters give statements 

 which, while they are perfectly true, are based upon 

 such narrow experience that they are of little or no 

 value as contributions to a broad, comprehensive view 

 of the problem. 



The tongmen know that most of the oysters have 

 been taken away by the dredgers, and they therefore 

 advocate the prohibition or restriction of dredging. 

 Ignorant of the fact that in localities where no dredg- 

 ing has been allowed, the natural beds have been ex- 

 hausted by tongmen just as soon as a demand for the 

 oysters sprung up, they believe that the prohibition of 

 dredging is all that is needed to restore the beds. The 

 dredgers, on the other hand, attribute the injury to 

 the law which allows the tongmen to take oysters for 

 private use in the summer, forgetting that the beds of 

 Connecticut are rapidly increasing in value under a 

 law which allows not only tonging, but dredging as 

 well all through the year. The small dredgers and 

 scrapers hold that the larger vessels are destroying the 



