180 Our Food Mollusks 



In the year 1855 a ^ ew East River oystermen began 

 to spread clean shells on some of the unproductive bot- 

 toms near City Island. This was done under the pro- 

 tection of a very wise law, passed in the same year, that 

 gave them the right to occupy and control certain definite 

 tracts on the river bottom. Multitudes of young oysters 

 settled on these shells, and were transplanted and cared 

 for until they had become large enough to be marketed. 

 In this way there arose a method of controlling the 

 natural production of the water that is similar to that 

 practised on the land. 



We cannot depend on a natural, undomesticated 

 growth of land plants or animals for food. In nature 

 one generation usually gives rise only to an equal number 

 of descendants that reach maturity. But grains and 

 fruits placed on waste places, in soil that has been pre- 

 pared for them, are made to reproduce many fold, and 

 swine, sheep, and cattle that, under natural conditions, 

 could not long maintain numbers great enough to be of 

 use to man, with protection from him, appear on a 

 thousand hills. And American oyster culture, though 

 simple, affords the essential element of protection from 

 destructive natural agencies that has covered desert 

 places with plenty. Compared with the achievements of 

 agriculture those of the early sea farmers seem simple; 

 but it should not escape attention that it had always been 

 the common belief that the organisms of the sea were un- 

 tameable. It required bold thinking, unfettered by the 

 prejudice of generations, to conceive of the possibility of 

 adding such a realm to man's dominion. 



Connecticut and other northern states with waters 

 suitable for oyster growth, followed New York in enact- 

 ing laws fostering the new industry. By their protection 



