62 OYSTER BEDS OF JAMES RIVER, VIRGINIA. 



It will be observed that on the basis assumed in this report the 

 depleted areas are wholly unproductive commercially, and the 

 bottoms covered with very scattered growth are practically so. "On 

 the latter the growth in many cases is barely sufficient to yield 3 

 bushels per day, and in no case does it much exceed that limit. The 

 large aggregate of market oysters on the areas of very scattered and 

 depleted bottoms are so thinly distributed as to be unavailable 

 commercially, and are therefore valueless except as brood stock to 

 assist in furnishing spat for replenishing the beds. On the dense 

 areas about three-fourths of the total contents and on the scattering 

 growths about one-half may be taken with profit. 



The total estimated available product of 43,075 bushels appears 

 very small as compared with the area included within the Baylor 

 lines, averaging but about 6 bushels per acre. It is about half of the 

 average yield of marketable oysters on the public grounds of the 

 State as a whole in 1901 and 1904, according to the statistics of the 

 Bureau of Fisheries, and about equal to the average yield in 1908, as 

 stated by the Bureau of the Census. 



The deficiency in productiveness of this section was to be expected 

 in view of public report. The beds, especially in Nansemond River, 

 are generally recognized as being seriously depleted, the allegation of 

 the tongers being that several years ago large quantities of unculled 

 stock were taken from the beds for deposit on private planting ground, 

 and the tonger employed by the survey is authority for the statement 

 that the growth on the Nansemond River beds in the season preceding 

 the investigation was hardly sufficient to warrant tonging. 



Combining the exhibits of the tables of areas and of commercially 

 available oysters, we find that it apparently would be profitable to 

 take from the dense growths about 83 bushels per acre and from the 

 scattering growths an average of about 32 bushels. On the bottoms 

 with a very scattering growth the average content per acre at the 

 beginning of the present oyster season was so small that, even under 

 the very low standard of profit adopted in this report, the beds would 

 be reduced to unproductiveness after an average of only about 3 

 bushels of oysters per acre had been removed. Of course a very large 

 part of this bottom must be regarded as practically unproductive 

 in the beginning, and it is only here and there that even the least 

 ambitious tonger would venture to work. 



Another aspect of the present state of these grounds is the production 

 of young oysters and the presence of shells in such quantities and 

 cleanliness as to afford prospect of a strike under proper conditions. 

 The following table gives the estimated total content of the several 

 rocks and of the grounds as a whole in oysters less than 3 inches long : 



