154 
tain specified time, provided that the oysters were opened in, 
their immediate vicinity. Large numbers of young would 
thus be saved and the areas of the beds increased. ~No one 
should be allowed to take or to possess an oyster having more 
than a specified number of young attached to it. During the 
time when not otherwise employed the oyster guard-boats 
could be usefully engaged in removing the weeds and grass 
from the sand shoals, and the moss from the closed beds. It 
must be remembered that dredging is not an unmixed evil,, 
and that the improvement of the oysters and the extended 
areas of the beds are mainly due to it ; but it should be con- 
ducted under suitable restrictions, and in this connection may 
be advised the use of the scrape where it is now prohibited,, 
and the prohibition of the heavy dredges in shoal water and 
on the soft bottoms. 
If there is any animal known to naturalists that is an en- 
emy of the drill and not harmful to the oyster, its introduction 
into the Sounds would be a great benefit, and finally, if in the' 
spring either the State or the fishermen would collect the 
shells from the piles about the packing houses and deposit 
them on the hard bottoms contiguous to the beds, they would 
furnish an excellent “ cultch ” for the “ spat,” and probably 
make a good catch and a permanent extension of the oyster 
ground. 
I have made the above suggestions with the hope that they 
may in some way bear fruit for the benefit of those engaged 
in the oyster fishery in the Sounds and Bay. Some more ad- 
equate protection than that now offered must soon be afforded 
or loss and distress among the large number of people in Ma- 
ryland and Virginia engaged in the fishery will soon follow 
from the failure (and that more or less sudden) of the oyster 
industry. In concluding this part of my report, I cannot do 
better than to again quote Prof. Mobias, whose remarks on 
the preservation of natural banks of oysters are well worthy 
of attention : 
“In conclusion, I hereby give as the foundation for all 
“ oyster culture the most important rules for the improvement 
“ of the natural oyster banks. 
