OYSTER-BEDS OF LOUISIANA. 97 



The provision of section 8 of the oyster act of 1896, "that nothing 

 in this section shall deprive the police juries of the parishes in which 

 natural oyster beds or bars are situated of the privilege of granting 

 permission for the removal of shells or small oysters to other parishes 

 in the State for planting purposes," is one which would allow the utter 

 destruction of the natural beds, however wise and stringent the rest of 

 the law might be. The culling law as it stands defeats its own ends. 

 Whatever the purpose to which young oysters may be devoted, their 

 removal must be injurious to the parent beds. Nature takes cognizance 

 of immediate rather than mediate results, and does not inquire into 

 motives when her laws are infringed upon. It is an interesting fact, 

 and one not without significance, that the natural beds first exhausted 

 in Louisiana are those nearest the most extensive planting-grounds. 



Doubtless the curtailment of the present privilege possessed by 

 planters of taking youug oysters from the natural beds would bring 

 forth a protest, but this should not stand in the way of a rational 

 administration of the oyster laws. The regulation here suggested does 

 not prevent the taking of oysters for seed, but only prescribes the size 

 of seed which it shall be legal to take from the natural reefs, and there 

 is still a reasonable profit to be derived by bedding oysters not less 

 than 3 inches long. The planter's profit arises not only from an increase 

 in quantity due to growth, but also from a great increase in the value 

 bulk for bulk — the larger oysters are more valuable than the seed, 

 while the planted oysters, owing to their generally superior shape and 

 condition, are more highly valued than the natural growth. 



It is, moreover, much to the planter's iuterest to have the natural 

 beds preserved, and any reasonable measure, such as is here suggested, 

 should receive his support. The extermination of natural beds means 

 increasing difficulty in procuring seed, either large or small, a point 

 well illustrated by the experience of Bayou Cook planters, who since 

 the destruction of the Barataria Bay beds have been compelled to go 

 to Timbalier Bay, involving the payment of canal tolls and increasing 

 the distance by about 20 miles. 



Even should the proposed regulation practically prohibit oyster- 

 planting as now carried on, it would be preferable to enforce it rather 

 than to permit the extermination of the natural beds, for that in itself 

 would result in the destruction of both. This conclusion is justified 

 when it is remembered that there is another and more valuable method 

 of oyster-culture open to the planters, the system of planting cultch, 

 which will be described hereafter. The planting of seed oysters does 

 not greatly increase the productiveness of the oyster lands. It improves 

 the size, shape, and flavor of the plants, and to a limited extent 

 increases the oyster output by saving some which would perhaps fall 

 victims to the vicissitudes of life on the natural beds, but in the main 

 it merely transfers the immediate source of the product from the public 

 to private beds without lessening the drain upon the former. 

 f. r. 98 7 



