OYSTERS AND OYSTER-CULTURE IN TEXAS. 



BY I. P. KIBBE, 



Fhh and Oyster Commissioner of Texas. 



The subject of oyster culture is an old one, yet its importance demands our earnest 

 consideration. While it has been agitated in Texas for many years, experiments 

 have been limited, though small ones have been made which have proved profitable. 



About the year 1890 the Galveston Oyster Company transplanted a large quan- 

 tity of oysters, removing them from Matagorda Bay to Galveston Bay. It is reported 

 that this effort proved a failure, and that they lost not only the plant but also the 

 spat of that season. The total destruction of this bed has never been satisfactorily 

 explain ed, though several theories have been advanced a mud deposit from the Gulf, 

 drainage from the creosote works at Galveston. Another plausible theory is that the 

 bed was maliciously destroyed by persons opposed to the enterprise. The fact that 

 oyster-beds in the same bay, less than 10 miles from this bed, were not injured in any 

 way, points to the latter conclusion. 



While this experiment was unsuccessful, it is no proof that oysters can not be cul- 

 tivated in Texas as well as elsewhere, for it is a fact that they have been profitably 

 cultivated in a small way in this State for more than forty years. These results were 

 obtained by transplanting in the spring into bayous, channels, or coves, which offer a 

 better supply of food than the natural reef or bed. Oysters handled in this way grow 

 much larger, fatten sooner, and bring much better prices in the market. 



The Tiger Island Oyster Company, of Port Lavaca, Texas, planted over 4,000 

 bushels of seed oysters in March, 1897, and in November these oysters were in fine 

 condition. More than one fourth were average-size, marketable oysters, which, if left 

 on the reef, would not have been utilized at any time, as oysters from this reef had 

 not been found in a marketable condition for years. The price of transplanting being 

 less than 15 cents per barrel and the market price of good oysters being from 75 cents 

 to $1.25 per barrel, a good margin is left for the work of gathering and marketing. 



It is claimed by some that oysters will grow in almost any locality and upon any 

 bottom, a collector for the spat being the only essential. While this is true to some 

 extent, my observation does not bear out this theory altogether. Food supply, as 

 well as a limited amount of fresh water, are necessary elements. While they do well 

 on some mud bottoms, on others they die as quickly as on sand. A deposit of foreign 

 soil or mud will often kill out a bed, although a good bed will sometimes be entirely 

 surrounded by a natural mud bottom. I am of the opinion that many failures can be 

 attributed to this cause. 



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