NATIONAL FISHERY CONGRESS. 279 



nite results have not yet been reached. It may be stated, in passing, that these 

 experiments have nothing in common with the pernicious process of plumping through 

 the osmotic influences of fresh or brackish water. 



ENEMIES. 



The Gulf coast is fortunate in its comparative immunity from enemies of the oyster. 

 Two of the most destructive inhabitants of oyster-beds in the North, the starfish 

 and drill, are practically harmless in the South, and to those familiar with the vast 

 amount of money and energy annually expended in protecting the beds of Long Island 

 this fact is very significant. In six years the vessels of one deep-water planter caught 

 nearly 10,000 bushels of starfish, and another in a single year is said to have expended 

 $90,000 in protecting his beds from the same pest. There are, however, certain 

 enemies on the Gulf coast which do more or less harm. The drumfish is apparently 

 more destructive than in the North, and the sheepshead is said to also do considerable 

 harm. Should either of these fish prove troublesome it would be quite feasible, as has 

 been demonstrated on the Pacific coast, to protect many of the planted beds by 

 stockades or fences. The economic practicability of the plan, however, would be 

 conditioned by the price of oysters and the location of the beds which it is sought 

 to protect. The conch and a somewhat allied gasteropod, the crown shell, known to 

 naturalists as Melongena corona, are said to cause more or less harm to oysters in the 

 Gulf. Mr. Joseph Wilcox, of Philadelphia, says in regard to the latter that they are 

 able to insert their long tongues or proboscides between the valves of the oyster and 

 then leisurely destroy it. He further says that upon one occasion he picked up on 

 the west coast of Florida a cluster of oysters with 20 Melongenas attached. Owing to 

 the comparatively large size of these forms it is probable that by exercising care to 

 destroy the animals and their egg capsules whenever found much could be done toward 

 securing some immunity from their inroads. 



Summing up, we find that the Gulf coast possesses both advantageous and dis- 

 advantageous features from the oyster-grower's point of view. The advantages 

 are principally biological; the disadvantages, economical. The physical conditions 

 are mainly favorable, but occasionally disastrous. The temperature and density are 

 both suitable over a large part of the region, enemies are comparatively few, food is 

 abundant, and the growth and recuperation of the beds rapid ; labor is cheap and the 

 weather is less likely to interfere with operations than in the North, where oystermen 

 are often compelled to work in intense cold and on boisterous seas. The disadvantages 

 have principally to do with the freshets and crevasses which at certain seasons are 

 liable to lower the density and deposit sediment upon the oysters, the occasional 

 severe storms and tidal wavos which tear up and destroy the beds, and finally the 

 distance from the centers of population and the principal markets of the country. 



LEGISLATION AND ITS ENFORCEMENT. 



In most of the maritime States the statute books are burdened with lengthy oyster 

 laws, and a large part of the time and energy of the legislative bodies are occupied in 

 the discussion of these laws and their enforcement. In all of these laws and in most 

 of the discussions the close season is an important factor by which it is hoped that the 

 natural beds may be preserved from destruction. It is invaiiably designed to prevent 

 the capture of the oyster during the breeding season on the hypothesis that when 



