OF THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT. 13 
12 inches wide by about 20 inches high and are put into the vats by the thousands. 
After the spawn, when the little oysters get to be about as big a ten cent piece, 
the tiles are taken out and the oysters which have grown along their sides are 
taken off and planted out upon the bar. This bar at Vlissengen costs the 
oystermen £30,000 a year for the use of it. The government demandsit. For the 
other bar near Bergen Op Zoom they pay the government £10,000 per year. 
That is at the rate of about $2,000 per acre. Of course the industry laboring 
under these terrible burdens is oppressed and can never prosper as it might. 
“The oysters, after growing on the bar to a marketable size, are taken back 
in the fall and put into the vats. The water supply in the vats is regulated as 
is desirable. Ice, therefore, does not affect them, and they can handle and 
transplant their oysters easily. But yet it is a very limited way of doing things. 
The women do most of the work. They go into the water wearing hip boots 
that reach to their waists, and have a way of tucking their dresses into the 
boots. A great deal of money is expended in oyster culture in France and 
Holland. Large quantities of American oysters are used there. Their oysters 
compare favorably in size to ours.” i 
STAR-FISH. 
It has already been shown that there are over sixty thou- 
sand acres of oyster ground heretofore designated which are not 
cultivated. There are two classes of men who hold these 
grounds: they who hold for speculation and they who are bring- 
ing their grounds gradually under cultivation. Some of the 
latter class really hold more than they are able to cultivate; while 
others there are who cultivate imperfectly, shelling more ground 
than they can protect from the star-fish and other marauders. This 
works badly for all; for, while the extension of shelled grounds 
affords an increased area for catching oyster spawn, the same 
increased area is open for the spawning of more star-fish; and un- 
less the areas are kept clear of the star-fish by continual dredging, 
they will grow side by side with the young oyster, and in 
time will appropriate him for food. 
That the star-fish have destroyed thousands of bushels of young 
oysters the past few years is a matter of public notoriety. From 
the reports which have reached the Commissioners it is believed 
that, although still quite abundant, they have been much less 
numerous the past year than they were the year before. But it 
is probable that they will thrive so long as the large areas of 
neglected ground afford them undisturbed breeding places. It is 
a common complaint that the natural beds, where the star-fish are 
not so much disturbed as they are on private beds, are their 
chief breeding places, and that millions of them go from 
- their haunts to prey upon the neighboring grounds. All classes 
