OYSTER BOTTOMS OF MISSISSIPPI EAST OF BILOXI. 37 



during the first few years should be low, gradually increasing to a 

 maximum of $1 per acre after time has been granted for the deter- 

 mination of the commercially feasibility of the project under any 

 given lease. If the practicability of private oyster culture should 

 be demonstrated it would then be advisable to permit a somewhat 

 larger holding than 100 acres, so as to remove any inchnation to 

 plant too thickly and thus cause deterioration of the stock. 



Doubtless the point w^ll be raised that if the State's planting opera- 

 tions have been less successful than was hoped, the same result will 

 accrue in respect to private undertakings. This does not follow. It 

 is weU known that a tenant is usually less careful of the soil than is 

 the owner of a farm, and that a municipality always manages its 

 affairs less efficiently than a private individual or corporation. 

 Abundant experience has shown, as a knowledge of human nature 

 would lead one to predict, that private oyster beds are more carefully 

 and successfuU}^ managed than are pubHc ones. They produce more, 

 and the OA^sters are better. In Mississippi, in 1911, the average price 

 of plants was twice that of oysters from the pubhc beds, and general 

 experience has sho^Mi that the better and higher-priced oysters can 

 find a market when the inferior, low-priced stock is begging for a 

 buyer. 



Oyster culture consists of more than tlirowing a lot of oysters or 

 shells on an old reef or tract of barren bottom. The planted material 

 must be properly distributed with due regard to the character of the 

 bottom, and seed oysters must be properly separated from the natural 

 clusters, else they will crowd one another as they grow, many of them 

 will die and the survivors be poor in shape and quality. If through 

 growth and subsequent sets of spat they become too dense on the 

 bottom, they must be judiciously thinned and transplanted, and they 

 must be guarded as much as possible from enemies and from persons 

 taking them illegally. A private planter hoping to reap the reward 

 of his care and industry will see to these things, but the pubhc in 

 deahng wdth a common property is indifferent, or worse, and the re- 

 sults are unsatisfactory even though the State may spend considerable 

 sums to make it otherwise. 



Aside from its production of much-needed foodstuff and its increase 

 in the wealth production of the body politic as a whole, which are the 

 important considerations, oyster culture has the additional advan- 

 tage of economy in State administration. The care of the pubhc 

 beds is a constant avenue of State outlay. The leasing of barren and 

 naturally unproductive bottom is a source of State revenue. 



In all States in which there are natural beds of considerable ex- 

 panse the major part of the expenditures of oyster-law administration 

 are in their behalf. The production of revenue is not the chief con- 

 cern when the welfare of industry and the conservation of a food supply 



