FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 57 



growth oystermen to successfully cope with this enemy, made it impracticable for the 

 planters to depend upon this source for their necessary supply of seed. These beds, 

 being in all instances overworked and without cultivation, became in some cases greatly 

 depleted, and in others entirely destroyed by starfish, so that it became as necessary 

 to cultivate seed oysters for the use of planters as to cultivate the oysters for market. 

 This fact, together with the continued decrease of oysters from the Chesapeake Bay, 

 the great natural oyster bed of the world, was the primary cause of the agitation among 

 oystermen for some surer method and more certain source for procuring the necessary 

 supply of seed, which resulted in the Oyster Law of Connecticut passed in 1884. This 

 law provided for the sale of lands underwater on the Connecticut side of Long Island 

 Sound with the view that these lands would be used for the cultivation of seed. The 

 lands were at once taken up in large quantities, were dredged and cleaned, shells were 

 planted and the cultivation of seed began, and then began also the fight as to what 

 constituted a bed of oysters of natural growth. This fight was at one time in Connec- 

 ticut an extremely bitter one and very hotly contested. It has now, however, been 

 practically ended in that State, and planters and natural-growth oystermen live ami- 

 cably together. In 1886 a similar law, except that in this State the oystermen were 

 given a franchise, while in Connecticut they were given a deed, was passed, and the 

 cultivation of seed on the New York side of Long Island Sound began, and the ques- 

 tion of what constituted a bed of oysters of natural growth had to be determined. 

 The Commissioners of Fisheries in Connecticut and in this State also adopted as a rule 

 that a bed of oysters of natural growth to be designated by them as such must be a 

 bed which produced each year and which at all times contained oysters in sufficient 

 quantities to enable a man to make a living thereon, and not a sporadic growth of 

 oysters which might occur on any piece of land under water suitable for the cultiva- 

 tion of shellfish. To draw the line properly, however, and to decide just which lands 

 to be granted and which not, has been a difficult question to determine. The question, 

 however, is now satisfactorily settled, and, I think, will cease to be a troublesome one. 



It is, perhaps, well to explain now the method used by oystermen to cultivate 

 these beds of seed oysters and to explain how difficult it is and what an immense 

 amount of money and time is necessary to produce a successful result. I have taken 

 the time to explain the whole method from the beginning, in order that the system in 

 vogue under the old Commission, and under myself, for the granting of franchises 

 should be thoroughly understood. 



Unless the oysterman is already in occupation of the land he desires to make the 

 application for, he usually makes a preliminary examination, in order to satisfy him- 

 self that the ground he wishes to apply for has the necessary requisites for a successful 

 bed of oysters. The ground most desirable is hard bottom, and should be free from 



