Report of tl)e ^aperintendent of 



iyoz 



To tf)e Forest, I%I) and dame Commission: 



GENTLEMEN. — Though frequent treatises upon the shellfish industry of 

 this country have appeared in print and from time to time articles 

 of considerable value concerning this subject have been produced, it 

 remains true that the public generally, and particularly those who reside at 

 points remote from the seacoast, have but faint ideas of its relative importance- 

 Next to the State forests, which conserve the rainfall over a vast area and con- 

 stitute the reservoirs which equalize the flow of our mountain streams and great 

 rivers, preventing alternate floods and droughts, and preserving the navigability 

 of our waterways, so bringing continued prosperity to commerce and with regu- 

 larity watering the thirsty land, comes the shellfish industry in importance among 

 the subjects under the care of the Forest, Fish and Game Commission. 



Years ago the State of New York adopted a policy calculated to foster and 

 encourage this industry, which, with the threatened exhaustion of the natural 

 beds of oysters and clams, bade fair to continue in but a languishing condition. 

 The result of this system was at once apparent, and so rapidly did the business 

 respond that at a net outlay of little more than $5,000 per annum from the State 

 Treasury a delicious food product, valued at many millions of dollars, is annually 

 gained for the entire people and is supplying an excellent and cheap item of diet 

 at a time when all other foodstuffs have materially enhanced in price to the 

 consumer. It is one great industry which has not been taken over by a trust, 

 though many attempts have been made to control it, with the result that never 

 have oysters been cheaper than at the present time. The oyster planters' busi- 

 ness is at best uncertain and precarious. From the moment the beds under the 

 waters of our sounds, bays and rivers are cleaned, scraped and prepared and 

 the seed planted until the mature bivalve is dredged for market the work is 

 experimental. A severe wind from an unfavorable quarter, with its incidental 

 high waves and shifting sands, may in a few hours blot out the investment and 



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