THE CONSERVATION OF OUR OYSTER SUPPLY. 3 



and in the methods, number of persons, and capital employed for 

 the building up of the industry. 



In the present conditions an oyster famine is not a far-away 

 nor impossible contingency. We have been large consumers of 

 oysters, and we did not sow where we had reaped. Luckily, this 

 condition of affairs attracted the serious attention of the United 

 States Fish and Fisheries Commission ; exhaustive investigations 

 were made, and finally, in the autumn of 1891, Mr. Bashford Dean 

 proceeded to France, under instructions from the United States 

 Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries, and there, at the great 

 French homes of oyster culture around Arcachon and Auray 

 he examined the French methods of artificial culture, his obser- 

 vations being chiefly made so as to be as pertinent as possible to 

 the conditions of American waters. I can not, however, agree 

 with some of the statements which Mr. Dean makes in the intro- 

 duction to his report. He says that, considering the condition 

 and methods of oyster culture in France, it is apparent that in 

 this country " all costly methods of cultivation could have proved 

 of little practical value." Prof. W. K. Brooks, Mr. E. C. Black- 

 ford, and other authorities are positive in their statements to the 

 contrary. For instance, in his report to the Legislature of New 

 York State, in 1887, Mr. Blackford says : " The rapid deterioration 

 of the natural growth of oyster beds . . . has made it absolutely 

 necessary that the artificial propagation of the oyster should be 

 encouraged to prevent its entire extermination." But, as it will 

 be necessary to enter into this subject more fully later, I shall 

 now briefly examine the general conditions of the industry as it 

 exists to-day, making short historical and comparative allusions 

 as I proceed. 



Taking the oyster beds in the order in which I have placed 

 them, we shall first examine those of South Carolina. " The en- 

 tire coast margin " of this State is well provided with natural 

 beds ; but, says Mr. Dean, " they are strangely unlike the natural 

 beds occurring further northward." In this region the oyster is 

 found on the margin of the shore in positive reefs, part of which 

 are at low tide exposed so that the oysters live almost "as 

 much in the air as in the water." These ledges are formed of 

 curious clusters those oysters which are on the top being called 

 "raccoons," because of their peculiar shape. These oysters can 

 barely be said to live, and are in their present condition utterly 

 unfit for the table. 



Prof. Ryder says that the cause of this peculiar clustering is 

 that, because of the muddy and unhealthy condition of the bottom 

 in the deeper water, the oysters of South Carolina cling to the 

 shore line and there build upon one another, generation after 

 generation, until sometimes ledges are formed over ten feet in 



