64 SHELL-FISH COMMISSIONERS’ REPORT. [Jan., 
oyster and gradually eats him up, even to the very hinges 
of the shell—always stretching his elastic body from his 
own shell as far as is necessary to accomplish his purpose. 
The periwinkle breaks the valves of the oyster between the 
operculum and the main shell, andthen eats up the tenant. 
The dredge rarely fails to bring up one or more of these 
depredators. Sometimes they are found in great numbers, 
and as many as aton of star-fish have been caught by 
one steamer ina day. By continual vigilance the private 
beds are kept comparatively free from them. The larger 
proprietors of deep-water beds use steamers for this work, 
as also in doing their work of planting, raking over, and 
dredging, and they use larger dredges than the sail vessels 
can, as they are also worked by steam, at a great saving of 
labor and expense. When the oysters have grown on these 
beds to a merchantable size they are sometimes sold 
directly from the beds; but more frequently they are trans- 
planted into brackish or fresh waters, where they are per- 
mitted to remain for a short period to freshen and fatten 
for market. 
To supplement the native supply, oysters of different 
erowths are brought from the Chesapeake, and laid down 
in suitable beds. During a season they grow rapidly and 
improve in flavor. They are generally gathered in the late 
fall and winter. Oysters placed on muddy beds grow very 
fast, if not suffocated; but they are not of such delicate 
flavor. Oysters will take in a good deal of mud and sand 
without suffocation; and when such are transplanted to 
cleaner beds they readily eject all impurities, and become 
as clean as if bred in the deep sea. The choicest beds are 
those which have hard, clean bottoms, in deep water, lying 
in the direction of the fresh-water currents and in the 
neighborhood of spawning communities. 
Oysters are commonly supposed to be unfit for food in 
May, June, July, and August, because these are their 
spawning months. But when it is considered that they 
spawn at different times on different beds, and often on the 
same bed, and the spawner completes the operation in from 
two to four weeks, it is obvious that good, wholesome 
