THE LOUISIANA OYSTER INDUSTRY. 



BY F. C..ZACHARIE. 



The great resources of Louisiana, in its large production of sugar cane, cotton, 

 rice, lumber, and fruits, have hitherto kept in comparative obscurity what are generally 

 deemed the minor, and wrongly considered the less remunerative, field > fur the 

 employment of capital and intelligent labor. Many of these are so regarded simply 

 because the best locations for their development have been until recently remote from 

 the centers of trade and great waterways and, in many instances, difficult of access 

 by quick transportation. This possibly accounts for the general ignorance of the 

 great opportunities which these industries offer for highly remunerative investment. 



Prominent, if not the principal, among these neglected interests are the vast 

 fishery interests of the State which, under energetic labor and scientific cultivation, 

 would in a few years equal, if they did not surpass, in the way of pecuniary profit, 

 the aggregate value of the entire agricultural product of the State. The extent of 

 the oyster territory is so vast, the supply so abundant and cheap, and so little labor 

 and capital are required for development, that, once known, capital and labor will 

 inevitably seek employment in what must eventually become a leading industry, far 

 surpassing that of any other State in the Union in this respect. 



On the eastern boundary, starting from the Rigolets, the small gut or strait con- 

 necting Lakes Borgne and Pontchartrain, and following the shore line southward and 

 westward around the mouths of the Mississippi Kiver to the Texas line, there is a coast 

 of about GOO miles in length, if measured on straight lines from point to point. Making 

 an allowance for the curvatures of the coast, the shores of salt-water bays, bayous, 

 inlets, lakes, and islands, which fret this part of the State like network, the littoral 

 line will not fall short of 1,500 or 2,000 miles. Taking into consideration the shelving, 

 shallow beach adjacent to it, experts well acquainted with its geographical features 

 estimate that the area suitable to planting and growing oysters is equal to the amount 

 of acreage available in all of the other States of the Union combined. By far the larger 

 part of this extensive coast was dotted by extensive natural oyster-reefs, originally 

 that is, in a state of nature only distant from each other a few miles. Those most 

 accessible to speedy transportation to market have been in some cases almost entirely 

 denuded, and others seriously impoverished by the constant fishing in and out of 

 season. In still other instances the fresh water from river crevasses has occasionally, 

 but only temporarily, injured the productive capacity of the beds. These injuries 

 are, however, but occasional and temporary, as we have just said. The fecund, recu- 

 perative power of nature, in no way more strikingly illustrated than in the immense 

 reproductive capacity of the oyster, soon replenishes the stock, whenever the depreda- 

 tions of fishermen or the overflow of fresh water cease, and the beds are allowed to 



rest for a time. 



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