230 AMERICAN FISH CULTUKE. 



boughs of trees. These, however, are generally worthless. 

 The oyster must be furnished on its beds with the food 

 required to secure flavor and fatness. Many of the 

 dwellers on the brackish waters of the south have their 

 family oyster-beds ; a place where fresh water enters is 

 preferred. 



Our cultivation of oysters has extended no further than 

 planting them in favorable locations, some of which are 

 known for the rapid growth they give, others for the fine 

 flavor they impart to the oyster. Many of our fine oyster- 

 beds in Long Island Sound and to the eastward have been 

 exhausted, but as yet there is not much apprehension of 

 the supply being short of the demand. Henry A. Wise, 

 Esq., when governor of Virginia, in one of his messages, 

 estimated the area of oyster-beds in that state at 1,680,000 

 acres, containing about 784,000,000 of bushels. In pro- 

 posing a tax of three cents on each bushel taken, he esti- 

 mated the revenue from that source at $480,000. If the 

 waters of the state of Virginia contain 784,000,000 of 

 bushels, what must be the total produce of all of our states 

 bordering on the Atlantic and Grulf of Mexico ? 



