THE UNITED STATES BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 1407 



For a number of years the Bureau has been engaged in an endeavor to 

 develop a practical method of fattening oysters. It is the custom of many 

 oyster growers to transplant their oysters shortly before putting them on the 

 market, to beds where the natural supply of food is luxuriant, and oysters fatten 

 rapidly. In many localities such favorable places are few or entirely lacking, 

 and the oystermen are compelled to put inferior stock upon the market, and thus 

 forfeit the full measure of profit. The experiments that have been carried on 

 are intended to develop a method of producing these fattening beds artifically 

 in localities where they do not naturally exist. By the use of commercial ferti- 

 lizers it has been found possible to produce the desired abundance of oyster 

 food, and the only important problem yet awaiting solution is that of materially 

 increasing the output of the artificial claire employed for the experiments. Con- 

 siderable progress toward this end has been made recently, the yield of the claire 

 in 1907 being 176 barrels, against 125 barrels in the preceding year; and as 

 with a given equipment the expenses of operation are not materially increased 

 whatever the product, this increase, if it can be carried further, as present con- 

 ditions indicate, will result in suflicient margin between the cost of the treatment 

 and the increased value of the fattened oysters to warrant its recommendation 

 as a commercial process. The oysters fattened by this method are as fine as 

 any placed on the market, and have been used with satisfaction at some of the 

 best hotels and clubs of New York, Philadelphia, and Washington. 



Upon two subjects in particular has the Bureau expended much energy 

 and at last achieved results by persistently sounding the note of warning. The 

 utmost efforts in artificial propagation can not save the shad fishery without 

 the aid of laws to permit a certain number of spawning fish to reach the streams ; 

 while on the other hand no practicable protective laws can save the oyster 

 supply without cultural work to keep up the beds. The Bureau has no power to 

 do more than hatch fish in the one case, devise methods of culture in the other, 

 and cry out the needs of both; and it lies solely with the States to provide for 

 the needs. 



North Carohna rose to the emergency of the shad situation a few years ago 

 and asked the aid of the Bureau in determining the actual protection required 

 by the shad, the actual condition of the fishery, and the possible remedies for 

 a rapidly diminishing yield. The Bureau's recommendations were asked for by 

 the state legislature, and a commission was appointed to draft salutary laws, 

 which have since gone into effect, confining gear to prescribed areas and leaving 

 clear channels for the passage of the fish. Immediate result was seen at the 

 government hatchery in the Albemarle region. The collection of shad eggs in 

 these waters in five years had dropped from seventy-five millions to six and one- 

 half millions. The next year, which was the first of enforcement of the new 

 laws, the collection was twenty-five and one-half miUions, and in 1908 the most 



