276 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



After speaking of the arrest in the development of the canning industry at 

 Apalachicola, Lieutenant Swift, in his excellent report upon that region, comments 

 as follows : 



That the canning business can not be carried on to any great extent for any length of time is due 

 to the fact that the supply of oysters is insufficient to supply the demand, notwithstanding that the 

 packers have used every means they could to preserve the oyster-beds by refusing to take oysters 

 under proper size, or out of season, or not properly culled, as well as alternating the use of different 

 beds each season. 



This is perhaps an extreme case, yet sooner or later, corresponding with the 

 wisdom with which the oyster question is administered, there must result a similar 

 depreciation of the natural beds along the entire coast. I can see no hope of the 

 continued productiveness of our natural beds if they are made to bear the brunt of 

 the yearly increasing demand. 



How to forestall the destruction of the natural oyster-reefs and how in a measure 

 to prevent it by lessening the demands made upon them are the questions with which 

 this paper sets out to deal. Those who have studied the problem are a unit in the 

 belief that the solution lies in the general adoption of oyster-culture under private 

 ownership and as a result of private enterprise. Government can do but little. Wise 

 laws rigidly and judiciously enforced can stimulate private ventures and retard reck- 

 less waste of the public possessions, but our oyster beds can never be repopulated by 

 the methods which have in many cases proven so beneficial in restocking our streams 

 with food and game fish. It is not my purpose to deal here with the methods and 

 details of oyster-culture, as these subjects have been recently treated of in the publi- 

 cations of the U. S. Fish Commission, 1 but rather in a general way to point out the 

 conditions which make for success and to consider in an equally general manner the 

 extent to which those conditions are fulfilled on the Gulf coast from Florida to Texas. 



The Gulf States present many physical and biological characters which render 

 them especially favorable to oyster culture, and they also present some serious draw- 

 backs. In determining the qualifications of any given region six important factors 

 have to be considered (1) density of the water, (2) temperature of the water, (X) Hiar 

 acter and consistency of the bottom, (4) the quantity of oyster food, (5) the presence or 

 absence of enemies, and (6) the character of the legislation and the success with \\liich 

 it is enforced. Each of these factors with its cognates will be considered in turn. 



DENSITY OF WATER. 



If a chart of the oyster-grounds of the Atlantic and Gulf seaboards were prepared 

 it would show that the oyster is confined almost exclusively to bays, sounds, and 

 estuaries, and that it is never found in places remote from inflowing streams. On the 

 other hand, it is sooner or Inter killed when exposed to the fresh water or that \\hich 

 is nearly fresh, and it is therefore only where the fresh and salt waters blend that it is 

 able to establish itself and thrive. It is customary to measure the salinity of sea water 

 by weight, an equivalent bulk of distilled water being accepted as the unit of compari- 

 son. So expressed, the best conditions of salinity for our eastern oysters are met when 

 the density measures between 1.009 and 1.020. Oysters will live indefinitely in a 

 density 4 degrees below or 2 degrees above the limit stated, but (hey then rarely or 

 never attain their best conditions of shape, flavor, and general excellence. Prolonged 



1 See Report U. S. Fish Commission 1897, pp. 263-340. 



