126 ELEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



There is, consequently, a community of interest among the planters in 

 attacking and destroying the star. For, in protecting his own beds, a man 

 also assists his neighbor to whose tracts the stars might go, and, conversely, 

 any neglect of one's own ground constitutes a menace to all the cultivators 

 in the vicinity. 



The work of destroying stars is a duty, as before intimated, in which 

 the natural growth oysterman usually takes no part. He takes the oyster 

 where he can find it, appropriating the bounty of Heaven without accepting 

 any responsibility as to the conservation of a further supply. 



When the star-mop is drawn to the surface, its load of stars is depos- 

 ited in a vat or tank and treated with boiling water or live steam. The 

 oyster boats are well equipped with apparatus for this purpose, the steam 

 or water being conveniently taken from the vessel's boiler, though some of 

 the steamers have special boilers for this purpose. 



Attempts have been made to turn to some useful purpose the large 

 quantities of stars taken from the oyster beds of Long Island Sound, and it 

 goes without saying that this should be a more or less valuable by-product 

 of the industry. Properly mixed with other material, they constitute a 

 valuable fertilizer. Frequently, farmers residing in the neighborhood of 

 oyster planters have contracted for the catch of stars, but the oystermen 

 say that in practice it does not work well, as they find that they cannot 

 depend upon having the accumulation of dead stars regularly removed from 

 their premises, and of course they cannot allow them to remain and putrefy. 

 As a consequence, the usual mode of disposition is to throw them over- 

 board after they have been killed in the live steam or boiling water bath. 



A Set upon a Set. 

 Important as the mopping for stars has been shown to be, it is still a 

 question of delicacy, requiring the exercise of an experienced judgment, to 

 know when this work must be suspended in order to prevent the calamity 

 of inducing the deposit of a set upon a set. It has already been shown that 

 the young oyster attaches to any clean, hard surface, and it will be under- 

 stood that the operation of mopping for stars has a tendency to so clean and 

 brighten the shells of the oysters on the beds that there is danger of a new 

 set of spat, from late spawners, being deposited upon the shells of the 



