386 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
THE OYSTER INDUSTRY. 
EXTENT AND IMPORTANCE. 
For many years oysters have been taken in nearly all the estuaries 
along the Texas coast. At low tide the wharf posts and pilings, the 
buoy stakes, and the reefs left bare by the receding water, are seen to 
be covered with small oysters. At times, particularly in the spring, 
when heavy freshets occur and fill the bays with fresh water, many of 
the oysters are destroyed; but this rarely happens to all the reefs in 
any one bay during the same year, and within two or three years they 
are usually as plentiful as before the occasion of such a disaster. 
Until quite recently the taking of oysters was carried on in a very 
irreguiar manner, but with the increase in transportation facilities and 
the influx of capital along the coast the industry is rapidly developing 
into respectable proportions. 
In 1880 only 95,625 bushels of oysters were taken from all the bays 
jn the State. In 1890 the catch amounted to 440,800 bushels, which 
were sold by the fishermen for $127,990; 369 men were steadily engaged 
in tonging, and over 100 more in transporting and marketing the catch ; 
189 sailboats valued at $66,250, 1 steamer valued at $15,000, and other 
apparatus to the value of $5,451, were.constantly used in this industry. 
A number of general freighting boats were also employed in transport- 
ing the catch for a short while during the busy season. The number 
of oystermen reported in 1880 was 200, and the value of all sailboats, 
skiffs, tongs, etc., was $17,750. 
The oysters found on the Texas coast are the same species as those 
occurring along the shores of the Middle States, differing only as the 
oysters of one bay may from those of another in the immediate locality. 
The oysters of the several bays of Texas differ as much from each other 
as from those on the Atlantic coast. In general the shells, while not 
like those of the “coon oysters” of some of the Southern States, are 
rather long and of very irregular formation. In many places the growth 
of oysters ona bed is several feet deep, forming ridges rising above the 
surrounding grounds. In such places, as wellas on the muddy bottoms,’ 
they have a tendency to grow in clusters, often large enough to fill a 
bushel basket; this results in great irregularity in the contour of the 
shell. On account of this and the rank growth of the shell, caused by 
the abundance of lime brought down by the rivers, the yield of ‘solid 
meats” to the bushel is not as great as the average yield of the same 
grade of oysters on the Atlantic coast. A “barrel” of Texas oysters 
“opens out” on an average not over 6 quarts, while in the Middle States 
the same quantity would contain from 8 to 10 quarts of meats. The 
growth of the oysters is quite rapid, it requiring only about 550 “25- 
year olds” to fill a3-bushel barrel. In the Chesapeake region it requires 
fully 750 oysters of that age to equal this measurement. Some of the 
Texas oysters are so large that less than 100 fill a3-bushel barrel; these 
are found chiefly in the muddy sections of Matagorda and Mesquit bays. 
