I4 SIXTH REPORT OF THE SHELL FISH COMMISSIONERS 
of growers have suffered by them, but the losses fall most heavily 
on the small growers, some of whom have been made bankrupt 
by their losses and have gone out of the business. 
No means have been devised so effectual for the destruction 
of these pests as are the improved dredges, which are so con- 
structed that they pass over the beds without disturbing the oys- 
ters. At their approach the star-fish rises, and before he can 
get away he is drawn into the net. Capt. Charles W. Hoyt, of 
Hoyt Bros. Co., has recently invented and patented a dredge 
which slides upon runners and nets the star-fish without disturbing 
an oyster. Mr. Riley T. Smith, of Smith Bros., has also invented 
a contrivance which is quite unlike Capt. Hoyt’s. 
In place of the iron tooth bar that usually moves before the 
net, he has a shaft to which four buckets, or strips of wood, are 
hinged. They are six inches wide and about four feet long, 
extending from side to side in front of the mouth of the bag. 
When the dredge is hauled over the bed the shaft turns, and the 
under bucket, caught by the water, opens, and as it comes up in 
the rear lifts and sweeps the star-fish into the net. Each of the 
four buckéts in its turn acts in this way at each revolution of 
the shaft. The oysters are not disturbed and nothing but star- 
fish are brought up by the net. Mr. Smith says it works well— 
better than any other dredge he has seen. 
Both these inventions will prove of inestimable value to the 
careful grower. 
Complaints continue to be made of those who work on the 
natural beds throwing the star-fish caught by them back upon 
the natural and cultivated beds. This trouble, however, has 
been fully considered in previous reports. 
UNPRODUCTIVE GROUNDS. 
That there is great difference in the product of grounds neigh- 
boring to each other, and even in contiguous beds, seemingly 
under like conditions and environment, both in deep and shallow 
water, is well known to all cultivators. ‘This difference appears 
not only in the quantity of spawn caught, but also in the rate of 
growth and in the quality and flavor of the oyster. 
Generally, however, all the grounds along the shores of the 
State lying west of Madison, so far as they have been fairly tested, 
seem to possess all the requisite conditions of successful oyster 
cultivation; and the only serious difficulty which the growers have 
had to contend with in securing good crops is the star-fish. 
