LX XVI 
We would call jour attention to the extracts given from the 
report of Mr. Winslow, as his investigations clearly show that 
there has been a very decided decrease of the oysters in the 
best beds; in fact, that some of them have practically been 
exhausted. His examinations indicate the necessity of our 
providing wdthout delay the means of arresting this exhaustion. 
Although it was impracticable to determine the exact condi- 
tions of the beds and the actual amount of the oysters of each 
class that are to be found, without much more extended inves- 
tigations than the Coast Survey has yet made, the relative 
conditions of the beds have been pretty well ascertained. It 
is earnestly hoped that this department will continue the val- 
uable investigations they have commenced, and that we will 
be able to profit by the cumulative work in this direction. 
A careful review of oyster culture in France, the results of 
the researches of Dr. Brooks, the investigations by the Coast 
Survey of the beds of Tangier and Pocomoke Sounds, the 
study of the oyster trade of Maryland and the operations of 
our oyster police force, causes us to suggest that perhaps the 
most rational solution that can be arrived at would be the 
division of the beds of the Chesapeake Bay into sections, 
and protecting alternately the beds in each section. The 
period in which the embryo oyster remains unattached, and 
the distance that the young oysters are carried from the 
parents during their early life is so great, that the abun- 
dance of spat deposited at a given point may not be the result 
of the fertility of the adults on an adjacent bed. By protect- 
ing a bed thoroughly, sufficient spat may be produced from it 
to provide the surrounding localities, and probably those quite 
remote. 
Conclusion. 
We have compiled from the several tables showing the re- 
sult of the hatching operation during the six years of the 
existence of the Maryland Fish Commission the following 
summary, showing the total number of each variety of fish 
which we have hatched and deposited in the w T aters of the 
State : 
