1882.] SHELL-FISH COMMISSIONERS’ REPORT. 61 
article of food in the remotest towns and villages of the 
State. 
With this rapid growth of the market, there was an in- 
creasing demand for native oysters; which stimulated fur- 
ther planting of seed from the natural beds. So that while 
the cultivation of Virginia oysters has materially fallen off 
that of Connecticut natives has largely increased, and the 
latter seem destined to drive all others from the Sound. 
Indeed the deep-water planting of native oysters has 
proved such a success that the magnitude of the business 
in the future cannot easily be estimated. 
Oysters are now cultivated to a greater or less extent in 
the waters of most of the shore towns; but the great centers 
of the business are west of Connecticut river; at New 
Haven, Milford, and Norwalk; whence immense quantities, 
in the shell and out of the shell, are shipped to all parts of 
the United States and to Europe. In quality the native 
oysters of Connecticut are not surpassed by any others in 
_the market. The Virginia plants, after a few months’ 
growth in the waters of the shore towns, become so 
changed and improved as to be second only to the natives. 
From the brief time which has elapsed since the com- 
missioners began their work, they have not been able to 
obtain complete statistics of the oyster industries of the 
State. What effort they have made to this end has not 
been so heartily seconded by those interested in the sub- 
ject as was naturally expected. Hence they can only give 
estimates founded on data much of which is contradictory 
and uncertain. From these data it appears that there are 
not far from 2,000 men and women immediately engaged in 
the various stages of the business, up to the time of ship- 
ping the oysters to market. Three-fourths of these are 
heads of families. Add to these a large number of men 
engaged in transporting, wholesaling, and retailing the 
oysters, and those who are engaged in building steamers, 
vessels, and boats with all the tools and implements of the 
trade; and it will be found that the number dependent on 
the industry directly or indirectly probably does not fall 
short of three thousand five hundred men, or, if you in- 
