9 
All attempts at artificial breeding had failed upon these grounds at 
Groton until the new method was successfully tried. This method 
briefly described is as follows: Birch trees of fifteen or twenty feet 
in height and three to four inches diameter at the butt are thrust 
about three feet into the mud under the water so as to stand at an 
angle of about 45° with the current. They cover the bottom on each 
side of the main channel to within fifty feet of the shore. At spawn- 
ing time the water is full of floating spat which coming in contact 
with the branches, adheres to them in great quantities and there 
grows until ready to be harvested for market or for transplanting. 
Unfortunately, in the spring of 1881, an epidemic of scarlet fever 
and diphtheria prevailed to an alarming extent in the neighborhood 
of the oyster beds, and the board of health of the town of Groton, 
having been unwisely advised that the sickness was attributable to the 
birch brush and oysters, ordered the total destruction of the beds as a 
nuisance, and they were destroyed accordingly. Thereupon the 
owners resorted to the court for compensation, claiming that the beds 
were in no sense a nuisance, and could in no way be any detriment 
to the public health. The trees were in water of 10 to 20 feet depth 
at low tide, and the oysters thereon were never out of water. 
Judge Culver, before whom the case was heard, found that ‘‘neither 
the brush nor oysters, nor both combined, were the origin or produc- 
ing cause of said disease.” The result is gratifying to those who have 
similar grounds and desire to pursue this simple method of cultiva- 
tion, which is unusually productive and profitable. The area of such 
grounds throughout the State waters is very large, and with proper effort 
can be made to produce millions of bushels of oysters where now is 
only waste ground. 
In compliance with the act of the last session of the Legis- 
lature, blanks have been prepared and distributed with a view 
to raise a tax upon the oyster grounds the ensuing year. The 
time for returning lists to the office of the Commissioners expired on 
the first day of November. Although due notice was given to the 
owners of oyster grounds throughout the State, there are many delin- 
quents, of the value of whose grounds the Commissioners will be 
obliged ‘to make the best estimate they can, and then increase the 
same ten percent. The arrangement and equalization of the valua- 
tions of the grounds subject to the taxation has not yet been com- 
pleted; as the necessary information in regard to the grounds of de- 
linquents is incomplete. It has not escaped the notice of the Com- 
missioners however, that owners of grounds differ widely from each 
