70 OYSTER BOTTOMS IN MATAGORDA BAY. 



mum consumption of diatoms is necessary, with the exact definition 

 of which we are not now concerned, and it follows from the limitation 

 of the production of diatoms that the production of oysters in any 

 given area is likewise limited. The absurdity of the claim of those 

 enthusiasts who multiply the area of the tidal bottoms of a state by 

 the annual yield of a few favorably situated acres and exhibit the 

 product as the potential oyster production under a system of oyster 

 culture is not difficult of demonstration. Every oysterman knows 

 that on densely inhabited beds the oysters are less likely to fatten than 

 on those beds where the growth is more scattering, and every oyster 

 planter learns sooner or later, either from his own experience or the 

 experience of others, that he will get unsatisfactory results if the 

 density of his beds exceeds a more or less well-defined maximum; 

 that though the oysters will grow, they will forever remain poor and 

 unfit to market. In many cases the difficulty is attributed to its true 

 cause, the multiplicity of mouths to feed from a limited larder. 



There is, however, another condition which not infrequently escapes 

 observation — the possibility of overplanting as to area, while main- 

 taining but a moderate average density of growth. Instances are 

 known where the only reasonable explanation of the facts appears to 

 rest on the assumption that this has been done. In Lynnhaven Bay, 

 Virginia, oysters formerly fattened every year without fail, but the 

 profits of the business were so attractive that eventually a large part 

 of the available bottom was taken up by oyster growers, and coinci- 

 dently there was a gradual falling off in the condition of the oysters 

 in many parts of the bay. With a decrease in the profits attendant 

 upon the inferior condition of the oysters the quantity planted has 

 recently decreased, and on certain areas they were, in January, 1906, 

 fat for the first time in ten years. The oysters are planted more 

 thinly at Lynnhaven than on any other part of our coast, the average 

 being not more than about 100 to 150 bushels per acre ; yet by utilizing 

 an undue proportion of the bottom their aggregate demand for food 

 has evidently become too great to be sustained by the natural fertility 

 of the water. That this condition may be repeated in other places 

 there can be no doubt. 



Unfortunately our knowledge of the food and feeding of the 

 oyster has by no means reached a stage where just what population 

 a given body of water will sustain can be foretold. That determina- 

 tion must for many years at least be made a matter of experiment, 

 but knowledge of the facts above stated may guard prospective oyster 

 growers against a too rash and unconsidered expansion of their busi- 

 ness and dictate care not only against planting too thickly, but 

 against a too gregarious location of their claims. A general knowl- 

 edge of the local distribution of food organisms in any given region 

 is of value, and quite within reach. The survey is able to make some 

 contribution to the subject. 



