1408 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



successful shad hatchery was in this State, the egg collections exceeding fifty- 

 five millions. 



The oyster fishery has had a common history in all of the Southern States, 

 of which Maryland, once the foremost in oyster production and the last to resort 

 to systematic cultural measures, affords the most notable example. The laws 

 controlling the fishery in Chesapeake Bay have been designed to protect the 

 natural beds, but have not encouraged or protected the oyster planter, and the 

 natural beds, thus practically the sole reliance, in time failed to sustain the 

 tremendous draft upon them. Between 1880 and 1897 the product fell 31.6 per 

 cent; in 1904 it was 39 per cent less than in 1897. 



The Bureau had for many years pointed out the short-sighted policy that 

 was resulting in the steady decline of the oyster industry, and was at length 

 gratified to find that the State had taken heed of the warning and enacted a 

 comprehensive law favoring oyster planting. The work that has now been 

 undertaken by the Maryland Shell Fish Commission to remedy the alarming 

 condition of the oyster grounds will be the most complete and accurate of its 

 kind. It consists of the survey and delimitation, by the aid of the United States 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey and the Bureau of Fisheries, of all natural oyster 

 beds in Maryland waters, to be marked and set aside as pubHc fishing grounds, 

 operated under the existing protective laws. All other suitable grounds will 

 then be reserved by the State to be leased to oyster planters, whose enterprise 

 will be encouraged and their rights protected as was not possible heretofore. 



Up to 1898 there were few planted beds of oysters in Louisiana waters. 

 Investigation of the oyster grounds by the Bureau in that year, however, led 

 to the passage of beneficial laws and proved a general stimulus to oyster culture 

 in that State, as is shown by the fact that some 20,000 acres of bottom were 

 soon under cultivation. In 1906 the State Oyster Commission, still further to 

 promote the local industry, again asked the Bureau's assistance, and large 

 areas of unutilized bottom were examined to determine their productive capac- 

 ity. The conditions were found to be exceptionally favorable, and experi- 

 mental plants produced 3 5 < to 4 inch oysters in quantities of i ,000 to 2 ,000 

 bushels per acre, within two years after the cultch was put down. In Barataria 

 Bay, where there had been no oysters whatever, such promising beds were 

 estabUshed that several hundred acres of adjacent bottom were immediately 

 leased by prospective planters. Other localities, though they have so far 

 shown no such conspicuous commercial enterprise, may be expected to prove 

 equally productive. 



Experiments in sponge culture have been in progress for several years, 

 and have now developed a practical system by which sponges may be produced 

 from cuttings at a cost much less than that entailed in taking them from the 

 natural beds. In view of the more rapid depletion of the natural beds which 



