42 OYSTER BOTTOMS IN MATAOORDA BAY. 



to induce a comparatively rapid expansion of the oyster industry 

 on the shores of the bay during the past few years. Formerly Port 

 Lavaca, being the only point having railway communication, was the 

 sole locality in which more than a purely local oyster trade could be 

 conducted, but the recent entry of railroads into Matagorda and 

 Palacios has enabled those towns to become competitors. Far from 

 detracting from the importance of Port Lavaca as an oyster center, 

 the rise of this competition has but served to stimulate shipments from 

 that place, with the result of a recent rapid increase in the oyster 

 trade of the entire Matagorda region. In the season of 1904-5 

 there were 9 shucking establishments in actual operation on the bay. 

 According to the report of the state oyster commission the ship- 

 ments from Matagorda Bay points in 1902-3 represented 55,000 

 barrels, in 1903-4 94,600 barrels, and in 1904-5, according to ap- 

 proximate estimates obtained from the dealers, about 125,000 barrels, 

 of unshucked oysters. 



PREVIOUS OUTPUT AND POSSIBLE YIELD. 



In the earlier years many of the oysters came from above Dog 

 Island Reef, but in 1904-5 practically all came from between Dog 

 Island and Half Moon reefs, the majority of them from the two beds 

 named. As shown in the table on page 14, Dog Island, Forked 

 Bayou, Shell Island, Mad Island, and Half Moon Reef are estimated 

 to have contained at the close of the season 1904-5 about 264,000 

 barrels of oysters over 3 inches long, or, if the estimate be restricted 

 to the parts of the reef which are worked, about 234,000 barrels. To 

 arrive at the number on the workable portions of the beds at the 

 beginning of the season, in the fall of 1904, there must be added to 

 this about 125,000 barrels, the quantity gathered during the year, 

 making the estimated total of about 359,000 barrels, say, in Septem- 

 ber, 1904. The oysters marketed, therefore, represented approxi- 

 mately 35 per cent of the total available supply of those over 3 

 inches long, although of course a considerable proportion of the lat- 

 ter were too small for the trade. 



Numerous detailed examinations of the workable areas of the beds 

 show that the oysters under 3 inches were numerically to those over 

 that length in the proportion of about 68 to 100 at the close of the 

 season. Assuming that practically all of these small oysters survive 

 and that they will grow to an average marketable size within one 

 year, which is a rapid rate of growth, there would be added to the 

 available supply of oysters for the season 1905-6 about 159,000 

 barrels, or, allowing a mortality of 25 per cent during the year, about 

 120,000 barrels. If the conditions at the time of the survey were nor- 

 mal and the annual supply of spat in succeeding years were to be 



