•iO Second ■ Annual Report of the 



the year, received a great deal of attention for the purpose of 

 establishing a rational basis of valuation in lieu of the present 

 unscientific and haphazard method. A study of the methods in 

 vogue in other States is on the whole unprofitable. The natural 

 conditions are dissimilar. Location, character of bottom, food 

 contents of water, salinity, temperature and currents are all im- 

 portant elements in arriving at an accurate conclusion. The prac- 

 tical difficulty is that the determination of most of these elements 

 is not within the power of the bureau as at present equipped. The 

 experience of practical oystermen is doubtedless of value, but it 

 should be supplemented by science. Reasons multiply why this 

 bureau should have, conveniently located on Long Island, a bio- 

 logical laboratory where problems of this character could be 

 studied. At such a marine station our bacteriological examina- 

 tions of shellfish could be made; studies in the habits, spawning 

 grounds and propagation of marine food fish prosecuted. With 

 the limited means at our disposal we succeeded in propagating at 

 the Cold Spring Station nearly 400,000,000 marine species during 

 the present year. Could we not reasonably expect to accomplish a 

 vast deal more toward augmenting the supply of food fish with 

 proper facilities? 



New York is not keeping pace with some of the other states in 

 these matters, although its oyster and marine fish resources have 

 now great potential value and might be easily developed for the 

 public good. There are many problems relative to oyster culture 

 that could be solved at a marine biological station. A distin- 

 guished scientist in recommending the establishment of such a 

 laboratory to the shellfish authorities of a sister state says: " No- 

 where in the world is the star-fish so destructive to the oyster as 

 in Long Island sound * * *. Any discoveries that could 

 abate this nuisance would be worth more to the oyster growing 

 interests of the State than the cost of a fully equipped biological 

 station for a century. It is not expected that any such complete 

 success will come from the establishment of such a station any 

 more than the agricultural interests of the State expect that the 

 San Jose scale or the potato beetle will be exterminated by the 

 State Entomologist, but it is a well demonstrated fact that the 

 money expended on insect investigation is returned tenfold to the 



