78 



mature oysters, it can be readily understood why the uumber of' these oysters to the square yard 

 should be much decreased. 



Iu the second section we find the numbers to be nearly the same as those outside; that there 

 is a gain in the rivers where there is the minimum amount of dredging, and also on two beds 

 which were worked very little in 1878-79, on account of the young growth which had attached to 

 them. The proportional increase of dredging, as shown by the numbers removed in each season, 

 and supposing the uumber of dredging vessels to have been the same, would be, on this section, 

 11,000,000; these were taken principally from the western beds and Piney Island Bar, and on those 

 beds there is a diminished number to the square yard. 



Again, we find by reference to the tables, that on the southern beds in Tangier Sound the 

 number to the square yard is much smaller than on the beds in the bay. This is due probably to 

 two causes — the condition of the bed, or the depth of the water, hardness of bottom and size of 

 the oysters, and to the removal of too large a number of mature oysters during previous years- 

 As I have pointed out, where the number on a worked bed falls much below that on an unworked 

 one, it must, other things being equal, be accepted as an iudication of a decrease in the productiv- 

 ity of the bed. That much is assured; but on this section there appears to be an increase in the 

 uumber of oysters to the square yard over the number found in 1878, and that increase must be 

 accounted for in some way. 



The table showing the number of oysters removed proves the number taken from this section 

 to be a constantly decreasing one, for in 1878 there were taken by twice as many vessels four times 

 as many oysters as were removed in 1879. This may be due to two causes, and probably is due, 

 to some extent, to both. The productivity of the beds may be impaired, or the fishery may be less 

 earnest and exhaustive than in the past. We can only account for the increased number to the 

 square yard by assuming the latter to be the case, the beds having probably enforced a resting 

 period by the material failure of the oysters. 



The numbers to the square yard and yield in Pocomoke Sound need no comment. Not only 

 are the numbers below the standard and decreasing, but the yield is also decreasing, as it natu- 

 rally would under such circumstances. 



Naturally, as soon as any bed ceases to give an adequate return for the labor expended upon 

 it, the dredging vessels will seek other and more profitable fields for exertion, and the desertion of 

 any bed may.be accepted as an indication of its decreased productive power. As has been men- 

 tioned under the head of statistical information, dredging vessels have, to a great extent, left the 

 Sounds for the waters of the bay and Potomac River. 



Considering the abnormal ratios between the mature and young oysters, the increased per- 

 centage of debris on the beds, the smallness of the number to the square yard, and the decrease 

 of those numbers on most of the beds, together with the large number of oysters, young and old, 

 annually removed, I am of the opinion that though the fecundity of the beds in Tangier Sound is 

 not yet destroyed, it is very much impaired, and that not only are the beds rapidly and surely 

 deteriorating from the excessive fishery, but that their total failure, like unto that in Pocomoke 

 Sound, is but a question of time. 



So far as it is possible to make anj T more exact prediction than the above, I am of the opinion 

 that, the fishery still continuing, tb.it failure will occur first on the beds at the entrances of the 

 Sound or those in sections 1 and 3, and of the two the failure of the lower beds is most likely to 

 first occur, and of all the beds the Woman's Marsh will be the first to give out. 



As stated at the beginning of this report, the beds may be protected either indirectly by enlarg- 

 ing the areas for the dredgers or insuring by artificial means the maturity of a larger number of 

 spat; or directly, by limiting and restricting the fishery. I alluded in my previous report to the 

 manner in which this latter form of protection was afforded abroad, and suggested a manner for 

 affording it at home. The necessity for the adoption of some such measures seems so urgent that I 

 earnestly hope they will shortly be undertaken. 



The extension of the dredging ground can be easily attained by depositing the shells from the 

 shell heaps about the packing houses on the bottoms contiguous to the natural beds; but such 

 deposit should always be made in the direction of the ebb and flow of the tide, in order that the 

 drifting spat may be carried over the newly-exposed cultch. The bottom is of minor importance 



