4 REPORT OF THE SHELL-FISH COMMISSIONERS 
engineer, as it provides that they shall not pay for engineering 
expenses more than two hundred dollars in any one year. 
The changes will be more particularly noticed in the contin- 
uation of this report. 
During the year ending June 30, 1889, which was the last 
year of the old commission, thirty applications for oyster-grounds, 
embracing twelve hundred and seventy-nine and five-tenths 
(1279.5) acres, were made to the Commissioners, and upon 
these and those made previously, twenty-nine (29) deeds were 
granted covering fourteen hundred and sixty and three-tenths 
(1460.3) acres, and the money received for them, was sent to 
the Treasurer of the State. 
The total receipts at the office for the year ending June 380, 
1889, were $8,578.41, and the total disbursements of the com- 
mission, including the pay and expenses of the Commissioners, 
were $5,153.13, leaving a net surplus of receipts over disburse- 
ments of #3,425.28, to increase the revenues of the State. 
Details of the receipts and disbursements may be found in the 
financial statement which appears on another page. 
The last year of the old commission was one of marked 
depression among the oyster-growers, owing to the failure of 
the “set” and the ravages of the starfish. The cold summers 
of 1888 and 1889 seem to have affected the breeding oysters 
to such an extent as almost entirely to prevent the usual crop 
of young fry, or at least to interfere with their successful 
growth. The oyster-growers found themselves obliged to use 
their best efforts to protect their existing crops, and could see no 
immediate prospect of replacing them when gathered. There 
were fortunate exceptions to the general rule, as for instance 
in the summer of 1888, off Orange, it was found that there was 
a fine crop of young oysters, and as it was upon undesignated 
ground, seventy or eighty boats found profitable work for many 
days in gathering and selling the oysters to owners of designa- 
tions in the vicinity. 
There seems to be one compensation for a limited “set” of 
oysters, in the fact that their natural enemy, the starfish, not 
finding sufficient food, disappears from the locality, and leaves 
a chance for a hope that he will never return. The starfish 
