NATIONAL FISHERY CONGRESS. 291 



pean shipments, and that section yet holds that trade, the bulk of their oysters being 

 sold as barreled stock. The oysters there were threatened with the same extermina- 

 tion as their northern neighbors, but the dealers finally realized the condition and 

 successfully propagated and transplanted oysters from Chesapeake Bay. Someof'the 

 wealthiest and most extensive oyster firms of the world are located in Connecticut. 

 The first shipping ventures were failures, as the oysters would not keep their valves 

 closed long enough. This was remedied, however, by placing them deep side down 

 or " right " side up, and in some cases the oysters were wired. The industry has 

 increased yearly, and will no doubt continue to increase in that section so long as 

 other sections consent to sacrifice their own oyster farms for the benefit of their rivals. 

 The true secret of their success, however, is that the people respect the rights of 

 others and confide in and respect the courts. 



When a reputation has been made for a certain class of oysters in the North, it 

 never dies out. For example, take the " blue points " and famous " saddle rocks." 

 The latter were discovered in the neighborhood of a submarine rock of that name, and 

 the u trade-mark " became famous in the northern metropolis some thirty years ago. 

 The beds were cleaned up in two seasons, yet New York has never lacked " saddle 

 rocks " from that 'day to this. The term is now only a name for large oysters, as " blue 

 point " is for any small oyster. 



The oyster planters of Long Island Sound must continually wage war against that 

 terrible enemy in those waters, the starfish. These pests, like the " borer," will not 

 live in fresh or brackish water. They require a strong ocean brine as their natural 

 home. They are the enemy of the oysters on the ocean front as the army- worm is to 

 the crops on land. The " borer " or " drill," as well as the starfish, murders thousands 

 of oysters in a season and causes a constant demand for fresh seed or plants from 

 other localities. It is no infrequent occurrence for oystermen to dredge up as many as 

 75 bushels of these pests in a single day's work, and a steamer has hauled up several 

 hundred bush els in a day. 



Some years ago our Connecticut friends found that the use of bare bushes planted 

 on the beds greatly increased the yield of oysters,-as young spat clings to the branches 

 and develops rapidly; but it was claimed that oysters caused typhoid fever, and that 

 it was due to the presence of these bushes, so a law was enacted which prohibited this 

 method of cultivation. The best evidence that this was a mistake is found in the fact 

 that typhoid fever developed in this section after the bushes disappeared, and the 

 blame was then given to the oyster per se rather than to the manner of cultivation. 

 But an expert commission of medical scientists has recently investigated this matter 

 and found that typhoid fever was not traceable to the use of oysters. 



The oyster business of the Chesapeake Bay, according to the last census of the 

 United States, represented the larger part of the entire value of the whole American 

 fisheries more than double the entire value of the cod fisheries of the Newfoundland 

 banks. It employs many thousands of people and is the perennial source of an immense 

 business. There is 110 question, however, that the catch of oysters of the Chesapeake 

 Bay region has fallen off lately. Just as in Florida, the tide water counties of Mary 

 land and Virginia look upon oysters and fish as public property. Human nature is 

 the same in the frozen north or the tropic seas. If the State properly managed the 

 matter it would yield revenue enough to pay a large part of the expenses of the State 

 government. Yet adjoining States should cooperate in this legislation. 



