70 OYSTER BEDS OF JAMES RIVER, VIRGINIA. 



The foregoing may be assumed to be the maximum quantity of 

 seed oysters that can be profitably taken from the beds during the 

 present season and the actual yield will probably fall considerably 

 below the total exhibited in the table. Of the total, the areas of dense 

 growth are capable of producing 88 per cent, of scattering growth 9 

 per cent, and of very scattering growth 3 per cent. The estimated 

 yield per acre of bottom included within the boundary lines of this 

 part of the bed is about 50 bushels. This low average of production 

 is of course induced by the large area of barren and depleted or prac- 

 tically barren bottom included in the Baylor lines. If we compare 

 the average of the whole area with that of the best bottom in the 

 natural rocks under discussion the paucity of the former is equally 

 impressive, the dense areas of the region under discussion having an 

 average total content of about 256 bushels per acre and a promised 

 yield during the present season of 213 bushels, over four times the 

 average of the beds as a whole. The average available product of the 

 areas of scattering growth is about 64 bushels per acre, and of very 

 scattering growth about 13 bushels, both yields being far below what 

 they should produce under proper conditions. 



Upon the dense areas as a whole the present production and the 

 promise for the future are both good, and on the area of scattering 

 growth, while the present production is fair, the quantity of shells is 

 such as to promise a better yield in the future, should there come a 

 season of heavy and general strike. 



On the bottoms rated as bearing a very scattering growth the con- 

 ditions as a whole are not such as to yield much profit to the tonger, 

 though in some places he could make a living wage for a short period. 

 In most places on bottom of this character the quantity of clean 

 shells is such as to give indifferent prospect of the future regeneration 

 of the beds. 



The depleted bottom, excepting in a few places near Deepwater 

 Shoals Light-House, bears shells in such small quantities as to make 

 exceedingly remote the probability of any material improvement 

 under natural conditions. 



PUBLIC GROUND NO. 1 ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY. 



This ground extends as a narrow strip along the right bank of 

 James River from close to the shore line out to the main channel, 

 between Rock Wharf and Days Point Shoal. It lies wholly within 

 the area set apart for seed production, and the statements in regard 

 to the methods employed in computing the productiveness of the 

 several parts of the preceding ground are applicable to this as well. 



Compared with the extensive areas occupied by the rocks across 

 the river in Warwick County, the beds included in this ground are 



