13 
There are now pending one hundred and fifty applications, covering 
an aggregate area of 23,162 acres, all of which, it is expected, will 
be surveyed and deeded in time for the next shelling season. Each 
application, so far as practicable, will be attended to in the order of 
its date. 
The foregoing table affords the ground for the assumption that by 
the time of the opening of spring work, in 1883, forty-five thousand 
(45,000) acres of ground will have been deeded to applicants by the 
Commissioners. These, with the forty-five thousand (45,000) acres 
deeded by the towns prior to May, 1881, will show an aggregate of 
ninety thousand (90,000) acres held by cultivators under State juris- 
diction. 
Of this vast area a large portion has been cleared up and shelled. 
One firm has laid down two hundred and fifty thousand bushels of 
shells. Several large growers have laid down as many as two hun- 
dred thousand bushels each. A still larger number have scattered a 
hundred thousand, fifty thousand and twenty thousand each. ‘There 
are about thirty steamers engaged in the business, besides a very 
large number of sailing vessels. Shells that but a few years ago were 
almost worthless have increased in value, and are sought after far and 
near. It is estimated by competent judges that the number of acres 
under cultivation is at least double what it was one year ago. With 
trifling exceptions good sets have been secured upon the beds, and if 
no unusual accidents occur, the crop, the next two years, will be - 
enormous. One cultivator alone looks for no less than one million 
bushels of marketable natives from his own grounds. Several other 
growers, individuals and companies, are looking for like large crops. 
And all are planning to still further extend their farms! 
It does not admit of a doubt that the business of oyster growing 
as carried on in the waters of the Sound is exceedingly profitable. 
And yet it is not infrequent that losses fall upon the grower as sud- 
den and unexpected as they are ruinous. Thousands of bushels of 
oysters in one patch have been destroyed in a week by the star fish. 
A well known firm recently lost twenty thousand dollars worth of 
oysters in one bed—ate up by these marauders. Another firm has 
in like manner, in the last two years, lost one hundred thousand 
dollars worth in the same neighborhood, off Charles Island. These 
creatures seem to move in bunches, and when they reach a bed they 
unfold and proceed at once in every direction to eat up the crop. 
The more intelligent oystermen claim that with proper dredging 
these bunches may be discovered, and the star-fish caught before they 
