THE OYSTER. 205 



The improvidence of the people of the United States 

 in dealing with their oysters, so long as they were 

 abundant, has been almost beyond belief. The early 

 settlers found at their doors a supply which they re- 

 garded as inexhaustible, and they not only used them 

 freely as food, but they also spread them upon their 

 fields as manure, and poured them, alive, into their 

 lime-kilns and iron furnaces. In the Northern States 

 the beds soon showed signs of exhaustion, and these 

 practices were prohibited by law. 



As it has taken our people nearly two hundred years 

 to discover that we cannot afford to destroy oysters 

 in this way, we. can hardly expect them to perceive 

 that clean, empty shells are also so valuable that their 

 use for lime, road-making, etc., should be prohibited. 



I called attention to the very great value of oyster 

 shells in 1879, m an appendix to the report of the 

 Fish Commission, and showed that a great increase 

 of fertility would follow the return of the shells to the 

 waters of our bay. 



If this advice had been followed at the time it was 

 given, our oyster-beds would now be much more valu- 

 able, but no attention was paid to it. 



The Commissioners of Shell Fisheries of the State 

 of Rhode Island, in their annual report for the year 

 1882, make the following statement upon this sub- 

 ject: 



" The oyster shells which have for years back been 

 considered almost worthless, have, within a short time, 

 become valuable to the oyster fisheries. It is a well- 



