308 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



more than 10 per cent of this vast number of eggs ever become fertile. The eggs 

 not fertilized are either dissolved by the action of the sea water or are eaten by fish 

 or other sea creatures. As soon as the oyster egg is fertilized changes take place very 

 rapidly, and in less than 24 hours it begins to swim and is drifted about by tides, 

 currents, or winds, but is always ready with its hair-like tentacles (cilia) to catch hold 

 of any clean object with which it may come in contact and remain there for life. 



This now brings us to the answer of the second part of our subject, "How can 

 we restore the oyster-beds on the west coast of Florida?" 



(1) By utilizing the eggs from the oysters left on these bars. On all these bars 

 there are still enough oysters left for egg production, and by scattering over these 

 bars from year to year, and just before the laying season, clean oyster shells (or, what 

 is better, the small shells found in great abundance on this coast) to catch this spat, 

 our bars will, if left undisturbed for a few years, be so. restored that a reasonable 

 amount can be gathered annually, and if not unreasonably drawn upon they will soon 

 recover themselves. 



(2) As, however, we have all along this coast and in the neighborhood of 

 these depleted bars thousands of acres of raccoon oysters, 1 that are in every way 

 adapted for seed, to plant on these bars, we can restore them in a comparatively short 

 time by combining the two methods. The latter method is the one used in restoring 

 the depleted bars of our Northern States. It is a simple matter of history that when 

 our Northern oystermen found their bars depleted they sent vessels to the Chesapeake 

 Bay and as far as the James River and bought small or seed oysters and scattered 

 them over their bars, and from year to year not only take up and sell those of market- 

 able size, but continue to import and scatter about a regular amount of seed oysters 

 annually. Now, then, if it pay the Northern oystermen and if it did not pay them 

 they certainly would not continue to do so from year to year to buy oyster seed and 

 transport it several hundred miles, will it not pay the oystermen on the west coast 

 of Florida to simply pick up, free of cost, and transport only a few miles this seed 

 from the raccoon bars? 



Inasmuch, then, as this coast by nature is so admirably adapted for oyster-growing, 

 and as the natural bars still contain enough oysters for spat production, and as the 

 oysters and many other kinds of shells are here in greatest abundance to be used as a 

 cultch, and as there are thousands of bushels of good seed oysters in the immediate 

 neighborhood of the depleted bars, I see no reason why, with proper State legislation 

 and an enlightened public sentiment, these oyster-bars on the west coast of Florida 

 could not be restored to their original splendid condition and in a few years be the 

 means of considerable revenue to the State. 



TABPON SPRINGS, FLORIDA. 



r lt is an established fact that wo have hut one species of oyst, r >n tin- Atlantic coast (Ostrea 

 virginica) and that the raccoon oyster is identical with thu regular commercial oyster. 



