306 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



V 



the demands were insignificant, and the oyster-bars increased and multiplied; but 

 when the tide of immigration set in, and the sparsely settled communities became 

 thriving villages, and mere hamlets became splendid cities, and in the place of the 

 Indian's canoe and the early settler's bateau, came the sloops, schooners, steamers, 

 railroads, and even the ocean steamers, demanding these oysters to distribute them to 

 the east, west, north, and south, to say nothing of the increased home demand when 

 we consider all these constantly increasing demands, we see very readily that the answer 

 to the question is simply that the demand is an hundredfold in excess .of the natural 

 supply, and the artificial supply amounts to nothing, and never will amount to anything, 

 in Florida, as it never has amounted to anything in any other State, until by proper 

 legislation oyster-raising is put on a business basis, the State giving every citizen who 

 wishes to engage in the oyster business the same -opportunities, the same rights, and 

 the same protection she gives her citizens to conduct any other legitimate business. 



As matters stand to-day in Florida, the oyster interests (I mean their protection 

 and propagation) are everybody's interest, and on the west coast of Florida there are 

 thousands of acres of land covered with water that are more valuable for food 

 production than the best hummock lands, and yet neither the State nor its citizens 

 get one farthing's benefit from them, whereas, by proper legislation, these oyster 

 lands now lying idle could be sold or leased and put under the head of taxable 

 property, and thus immensely increase the revenues of the State. Then, and not till 

 then, will public opinion respect the property a man has in oyster-beds. 



On this west coast of Florida we have all of the natural conditions climatic, 

 geographic, and hydrographic and the extent of territory to establish an immense 

 oyster industry, which would pay into the treasury of the State such revenues as 

 would appreciably reduce all other taxes, and in this way I believe public opinion can 

 most readily and most speedily be educated on the oyster question. Show a man 

 (and the same is true of a State) that you can and will make money for him, and 

 immediately you 'enlist his interest and his sympathy, when all your moralizing and 

 sentimentality fail flat as a flounder. 



But let us come to the practical and tangible part of the subject. Here I have 

 hundreds of specimens of oysters brought from these partially depleted beds of the 

 west coast, by which I wish not only to show the wonderful processes of nature in 

 adapting itself to the various circumstances and often peculiar conditions under 

 which the eggs attach themselves to any suitable object they may find in their 

 wanderings, but also to demonstrate that there are still on many of these beds enough 

 oysters left to furnish seed for their restoration by proper protection and timely aid, 

 either by the State or its citizens individually. 



In order to understand the subject before us more thoroughly, let us look at the 

 oyster himself. Here we have an animal living in a limestone house which he builds 

 for himself. He begins this honse-building when he is four days old, and he continues 

 to build and, as necessity requires, to repair this house as long as he lives. In the 

 ages past the oyster was a swimming animal, as he now is for the short period of from 

 five to ten days. At this period his two shells are equal j but after the period of attach- 

 ment, which is by the left shell, the lower shell becomes cup-shaped and the right or 

 Upper shell becomes the lid. 



The oyster makes his shell out of the gummy secretion of his mantle, which catches 

 and fixes the lime of the sea water by some special process not yet thoroughly under- 

 stood, thus creating a substance out of which he not only builds his shell, but repairs 



