16 OYSTER BEDS OF JAMES KIVER, VIRGINIA. 



and any considerable longing of the beds would soon materially reduce 

 the average catch per day. 



In the dense and scattering parts of this portion of the bed, especially 

 near the crest of the ridge, there is a growth of small oysters so dense 

 that an average of upward of 12 bushels could be tonged per day, 

 and these areas can undoubtedly be regarded as both presently and 

 prospectively productive. There is also a dense growth of young 

 oysters on the inner parts of the depleted area opposite Nansemond 

 River Light. On the areas of very scattering growth the small oysters 

 are in even smaller quantity than the market oysters, but in places 

 there are clean shells in sufficient quantity to indicate that under 

 proper conditions a good set might occur and the bottom become 

 fairly productive. 



Above a line drawn between Pig Point and Barrel Point the bed 

 may be divided into two parts, one a tail-like continuation of the 

 main bed running along the eastern edge of the channel and the other 

 a detached portion lying on a shoal west of the channel, north of Lar- 

 kins Rock. The former has 126 acres of depleted bottom and two 

 small patches, one of scattering growth covering about 22 acres and 

 the other of about 41 acres on which the oysters are very scattering. 

 The detached area covers about 260 acres, of which 15 are dense, 39 

 scattering, 51 very scattering, and 155 depleted. On the areas of 

 dense and scattering growths of market oysters there is a heavy 

 growth of culls, but the scattering and depleted areas are generally 

 impoverished of young. 



On the two areas just described as lying above a line between Pig 

 and Barrel points it is estimated that there are 15 acres of dense growth 

 on which a man could tong an average of about 8 barrels of market 

 oysters per day, 61 acres on which he could average about 5 bushels, 

 92 acres of very scattering growth where he could take about 4 bushels 

 per day, and 281 acres of depleted bottom which will not yield 1 

 bushel per day. On the depleted area there are few young oysters 

 and practically no shells. The barren bottom lying within this part 

 of the Baylor survey, on which oysters do not now grow and appar- 

 ently never have grown in marketable quantities, nearly equals all 

 of the foregoing combined, covering about 430 acres. The barren 

 and depleted bottom together aggregate about 711 acres, while all of 

 the bottom which is capable of yielding even as little as 3 bushels per 

 day, exclusive of the time consumed in culling, covers about 168 acres. 

 In other words, at least 80 per cent of the area is at present commer- 

 cially worthless. 



The observations, in addition to the sounding and chain investi- 

 gations, on which the foregoing is based, are as follows: 



