FOREST, FISH AXD GAME COMMISSIONER. I37 



natural wild product. We know that one acre of water bottom under cul- 

 tivation will, at the very minimum, produce ioo barrels of oysters per 

 annum, and we know further that the last annual oyster crop was less than 

 half a million barrels. From this it conclusively follows that the total 

 ster crop of Louisiana for the past season could have been produced on a 

 5.000 acre oyster farm properly cultivated." 



Ouestions concerning refrigeration of stock during marine and over- 

 land transportation are now practically solved, so that oysters may 

 be carried great distances without the loss of freshness or of delicacy of 

 flavor. 



Shipments during the year from West Washington Market show inter- 

 esting figures. The largest weekly shipments averaged 15,000,000 oysters. 

 The smallest weekly shipments averaged 1,500,000 oysters. 



Clams. 



Xew York State clams are unsurpassed, the Little Necks being far- 

 famed. They are especially in demand during the summer season when 

 the supply of oysters is scarce. Greatly increased quantities of clams are 

 annually demanded, causing the stock, during the past season,to bring phe- 

 nomenal prices. The clammers, during the summer of 1905, received $2.50 

 per bushel for small clams, such as they had formerly sold for $1.25, and 

 S5.00 per thousand for large clams which within two years they had been 

 glad to sell at S2.50 per thousand. 



Little Xeck clams take to cultivation and crops may be raised by the 

 planter with less risk than attends oyster culture. 



Oddities of Shellfish Culture. 

 The young oyster is thoroughly impartial concerning the style of founda- 

 tion he may have for the lime-walled tenant house which he intends to 

 raise, so long as it is clean and hard. Mud and slime he cannot and will not 

 endure. Though the oyster planter spreads out a bed of broken stone or 

 of jingle shells to which the oyster may attach, still there are other objects 

 upon the bottom of the sea, and it is not unusual to find a healthy growth 

 of young oysters upon a rubber shoe, a brass lamp, a stick of wood, a glass 

 bottle, etc. It is said that at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, 

 there is a specimen showing young oysters upon a set of false teeth. A 



