THE OYSTER INDUSTRY. 533 



none are planted. The growth of Rockaway oysters is extremely rapid. The mud in the bottom 

 of these marshy channels, which is ouly sufficiently compact to hold the oysters from being 

 smothered, seems to be full of nourishment, and the oysters arc always large and fat. 



The same story applies with more or less truth all along the shore to Babylon, where a prom- 

 ising industry, for which there is room for great development, has been begun in the neighborhood of 

 O;ik Island. The growth of oysters transplanted to Oak Island waters is extremely rapid. They 

 have been known frequently to double their size in a single season, and are often sent to market 

 at the age of fifteen months; that is, the second fall after-their birth. This rapidity of growth is 

 attributed to the freshness of the water, but undoubtedly is due to the excess of confervoid and 

 other food in the water. I know no place where it is more abundant, and it is quite possible 

 that the fishermen are right when they attribute the circumstance that oyster-spawn never catches 

 west of Nicoil'a Point, except around the mussel-beds in the inlet, to the great prevalence of slime 

 in the water; for this " slime" is the vegetable and hydroid growth that furnishes so much nour- 

 ishment to the adult oysters, and everywhere covers the bottom with a slippery growth and deposi- 

 tion. The chief drawback to success is the devastation sometimes wrought by moving ice. 



This brings us to the Great South Bay, an inclosed space of quiet water behind Fire Island 

 and other beaches, some 30 miles long. It is only at its eastern (Brookhaven) end, however, that 

 oysters grow naturally in any amount, or that oyster-culture has been carried on apart from the 

 Oak Island beds. Very complicated regulations exist as to the legal right of the planters in 

 their grounds, and I mnst refer the reader to my census monograph* for the particulars. How 

 vast were the natural beds of oysters in the eastern part of Great South Bay has already been 

 noted, and also the way it was exhausted by incessant drafts, not only for plantations on the 

 neighboring shores, but by men who came in sloops from Rhode Island and Massachusetts, 

 Rockaway and New Jersey. Planting interests thus became a necessity a quarter of a century 

 ago, and though the home beds are not yet quite exhausted, they have so decreased, in spite of 

 protective legislation, that the planters there are obliged to bring as much as 100,000 bushels of 

 supplementary seed every year from Newark, North River, or the Connecticut shore. I have dis- 

 cussed this matter, and expressed my opinion as to the decline of the seed-producing power of this 

 district, at great length in my report to the census above referred to. In a word, the oysters are 

 taken up faster than they can multiply the banks are over-raked. 



The center of the planting interest of the Great South Bay is at Patchogue, and there are 

 about 1,000 acres of bottom under cultivation in front of the town. This area includes all the 

 coast from Patchoniie to Bayshore, thus taking in the settlements and railway stations, Bayport, 

 Youngport, Blue Point, Sayville, and Oakdale. A part of these lie in the town of Islip and the 

 rest in Brookhaven, and thus come under slightly different regulations, but otherwise they form 

 together a homogeneous district, and the oysters they raise go to market under the general brand- 

 name of " Blue Points." The artificial beds upon which these oysters grow are all near shore, and 

 in water rarely more than 2 fathoms deep, and often less. The bottom varies, but, as a rule, 

 consists of mud overlying sand. The preference is in favor of water 6 to 10 feet in depth, which 

 is deep enough to escape ordinary gales, and is not too expensive to work. The oysters fatten 

 better there than in shoaler water, one planter said. The seed consists of the native growth, eked 

 out by cargoes from New York Bay, the East River, and elsewhere. The experiment of planting 

 Virginia oysters as seed has proved a failure ; they develop a shell closely resembling the native, 

 but the moment the oyster is opened the difference and inferiority of the meat is apparent, both 

 to the eye and the taste. Southern oysters will survive the winter in this bay, grow, and emit 



"The Oyster Industry, by Krnost Ingersoll: Department of the Interior: Tenth Census, Washington, 1881. 



