58 OYSTER BEDS OF JAMES RIVER, VIRGINIA. 



summaries of the estimated total contents of market oysters, as 

 distributed by rocks and varying densities of growth. These esti- 

 mates are interesting, but are misleading if regarded as a measure of 

 productiveness, for a very sparse growth over a large area, as compared 

 with a dense growth over a small one, will give a great aggregate 

 which really represents nothing commercially, as the oysters may 

 be so thinly scattered as to be totally unavailable industrially. 



The important point is not how many oysters there may be on 

 a given bed at a given time, but the quantity of oysters available 

 under existing local economic conditions, the maximum number 

 of bushels that can be removed with profit to the tonger. 



It is unnecessary to explain to those familiar with the oyster 

 industry that it is practically impossible to accomplish a complete 

 denudation of the beds in any one season, but there are cases known 

 to the writer, though he has no personal knowledge of the kind in 

 the region under discussion, in which small rocks have been, in effect, 

 taken up bodily, oysters, seed, and shells, and transferred to planted 

 beds. 



Under ordinary circumstances, in localities where the cull laws 

 can be and are reasonably enforced, not only the seed or young 

 oysters but a considerable proportion of the market 0} T sters are left 

 on the beds at the end of the season. Eventually, however, the 

 oysters become so scattered that the daily yield to the tonger be- 

 comes less than a minimum daily wage, and while the aggregate 

 quantity of marketable oysters left on the beds appears large when 

 expressed in a total of bushels, as in the tables of total contents, it 

 will no longer pay to take them. The minimum average density of 

 growth to which a bed may be reduced before becoming commer- 

 cially unproductive depends primarily upon the price of oysters. 

 The smaller, the market value of a bushel of oysters the greater is 

 the quantity that must be taken per day to furnish a living wage. 

 Another factor that is essentially involved is the amount of culling 

 required, less labor being necessary in handling the oysters when 

 they are single or in small clusters than when they are badhy clustered 

 and overgrown with young, from which they must be separated 

 before being placed on the market. 



The depth of water is also a very important factor in determining 

 the actual density of growth necessary to render a bed commercially 

 productive. As has been explained in describing the methods pur- 

 sued in the preparation of this report, the deeper the water the 

 greater must be the quantity of oysters per square yard or acre 

 necessary to afford the tonger a given catch per day. Not only do 

 his tongs of any given length of shaft and head cover a smaller area 

 on the bottom, but the time and labor of making the "grab " — that is, 

 putting the tongs on the bottom, scraping up the oysters, and pulling 

 thorn up — are materially increased. In other words, in deep water 



