49 



Assembling the number of dredgers known to have been dredging on these different sections 

 and the number of bushels taken by them, I have deduced the following results: 



Locality. 



First section 

 Upper Tan- 

 gier. 



Second section 

 Middle Tan- 

 gier. 



Third section 

 Lower Tan- 

 gier. 



Fourth section 

 Pocomoke. 



Total number bushels taken * 



Numer of days 



Average per day 



Average number oysters per day . . . 



Grand total taken off in one day. 



15, 135 



4 



3,783 



567, 450 



10, 115 



4 



2,523 



378, 450 



18, 060 



6 



3,060 



459, 000 



2,673 



3 



891 



133, 650 



1, 538, 550 



* 150 oysters are given to the bushel. 



Though there were dredgers in large numbers at work early in September and also many dur- 

 ing the entire summer, yet in order that any error may be under, rather than over estimation, I 

 will consider the working season to be from the 1st of October to the 1st of May and allow three 

 days in each week for bad weather which would prevent dredging. That allowance will leave 120 

 working days, and in that time, by the preceding table, over 184,600,000 oysters would be removed 

 from the beds in the Sounds, supposing them to supply the same number during the entire season. 



By Table II it will be seen that the average number of young to a bushel was 202. That num- 

 ber represents the number of young oysters attached to the shells of the full-grown ones that were 

 removed from the beds. Tliat the estimate is not above what is actually the case I am certain from 

 the immense numbers of young brought up by our own dredging operations. In making up the 

 estimate 20 and 30 young were frequently found on one shell, and iu one case 54 were counted. In 

 estimating the total number removed from the beds in one day, only those vessels dredging on 

 such beds as were known to have a large proportion of young upon them have been considered, 

 and even then the estimate reaches the astonishing figure of 1,238,790. These oysters are those of 

 from two to five months' growth, and may be said to have survived the most precarious portion of 

 their existence, their shells having become hard enough to resist the drills to a certain extent, and 

 they being firmly attached to the mature oyster, and in no danger of destruction from any cause to 

 which it would not be equally exposed. Still, many of them would doubtless perish even if undis- 

 turbed, for though all oysters on the beds, mature or others, would suffer if exposed to unfavorable 

 conditions, yet many of those conditions would affect the young and young growth to a greater 

 degree than the mature and more hardy oysters. I will therefore suppose that 50 per cent, of the 

 young taken up would never have reached maturity, and will also make another and very liberal 

 supposition, that by the 1st of April the young would have reached such a size as would make it 

 profitable to open them. That would make the working season, so far as the young were concerned, 

 104 days, and the number of young removed would amount in that time to 128,834,000, of which 

 about 64,417,000 would probably have attained their full growth. These young are a total sacrifice, 

 never seeing the water again after their removal and generally perishing on distant or adjacent shell 

 heaps. 



Many more are probably destroyed by carelessness in disposing of the old shells brought up 

 by the dredge. The dredging is usually across the bed, and the shoal hard ridges noticed along 

 the edges of the beds on the western side ot Tangier Sound and on all edges adjacent to muddy 

 bottoms are no doubt caused by the dredgers, who, as they approach the edge of the bed, having 

 dragged across it, haul in their dredges just before getting over the muddy bottoms. They then 

 stand on, tack or " wear," and as soon as on the bed drop the dredges again. In the mean time 

 the crews have been busily "culling" the oysters, and, as likely as not, have thrown over on the 

 soft mud a far larger number of young attached to the shells than they have taken off on the 

 oysters. No account has been taken of the number of mature or young oysters removed by the 

 tongers, and the estimates are based upon observations made at the commencement of the fishing 

 season, when, the prices being low, a smaller number of dredgers would be at work; therefore, there 

 is every reason to believe that the estimate of both classes of oysters is under rather than above 

 the real number removed. We have, then, aside from the ravages of the drills, a yearly destruction 

 of over 64,000,000 young and the removal of 184,600,000 mature oysters to account for the deterio- 

 ration of the beds. 



App. 11 7 



