Conditions in the Northern Field 187 



But a very large part of this is actually or potentially 

 a part of our oyster territory. Here is a wonderful suc- 

 cession of bays, estuaries, sounds and lagoons, vast 

 nurseries in which multitudes of marine animals and 

 plants flourish; where conditions for shell-fish growth 

 in particular are unrivaled, and of these the oyster is 

 most widely distributed and naturally most abundant. 



Our attention is often called in a deprecating manner 

 to the enthusiastic admiration of many Americans for 

 the big things possessed by their own country. Even if 

 this state of mind might be regarded as a national char- 

 acteristic, it would be possible to suggest more grevious 

 and less patriotic sentiments held by some of those who 

 number themselves among the judicious. Perhaps 

 something may be said for pride in the great achieve- 

 ments and great resources of one's own land even when 

 its expression involves comparisons. 



Possibly it would do no harm to make the statement 

 for the benefit of such enthusiastic Americans, that no- 

 where do oysters grow so rapidly, nowhere are they so 

 abundant, nowhere may they be so easily cultivated, and 

 nowhere is the oyster area of such vast extent, as on our 

 Atlantic and Gulf shores. In truth here is very much the 

 largest thing of its kind in the world. 



They may also know, if they choose to pursue the mat- 

 ter, that there are to-day immense oyster covered areas 

 in the South that lie undisturbed, that natural beds in the 

 Chesapeake have been tonged and dredged for nearly 

 three centuries without becoming entirely exhausted ; 

 that in northern waters cultivated areas have taken the 

 place of natural beds, and are producing more and finer 

 oysters than before; and that much larger tracts, on 

 which oysters formerly never grew, are yielding a har- 



