102 First Annual Eeport of the 



of Europe, Portugal, Spain, France and England, and there its 

 benefits are again utilized for the cultivation of mollusks. Be- 

 sides, the European oyster is an hermaphrodite, and the union of 

 spawn and milt is therefore much more readily secured. On our 

 own coasts, however, the Arctic current in its southward trend im- 

 pinges upon our coast and channels, and in our own particular 

 situation, the effect of this is enhanced by the fact that our oyster 

 grounds, with few exceptions, are swept by the severe storms com- 

 ing from the east and northeastward from the Atlantic ocean, and, 

 therefore, are exposed to their full effect, each carrying with it a 

 rapid fluctuation of the temperatures of the water. A change of 

 but a few degrees in temperature will advance or retard the spawn- 

 ing of our mollusks for days and weeks. To increase the diffi- 

 culty, the American oyster contains the male and the female in 

 different shells, and the union of spawn and milt is, therefore, 

 more problematical, and a set much more difficult to attain. We 

 have, however, on our coast numerous locations which could be 

 used for the securing of the young of this species, but these ad- 

 vantages so freely offered by nature have never been utilized. 



Many of our progressive oyster-growers, recognizing the difficul- 

 ties under which their industry is conducted, have brought ship- 

 loads of oysters from the South and transplanted them into some 

 of the quieter waters of our State with the hope of thereby secur- 

 ing more stable conditions in the industry. 



The law should require that all oyster grounds leased from the 

 State should be marked by stakes or buoys, the size and kind of 

 which should be prescribed, and all such stakes should have placed 

 on them in large readable characters the number of the bed. If 

 this were done, as it is in other States, the trespassing of one lessee 

 upon the beds of the other could be prevented. It would also en- 

 able this Bureau to readily find the lands which have either been 

 returned to or reclaimed by the State, and to remove therefrom 

 the stakes placed on them by the planters. At present a number 

 of grounds released and returned to the State are still being 

 claimed and used by the ex-lessees. 



All oystermen should be required, under penalty of forfeiture 

 of license for failure, to make annual statistical returns. 



For the protection of hard and soft shell clams and scallops, 

 there is practically no legislation excepting that adopted by either 



