276 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
After speaking of the arrest in the development of the canning industry at 
Apalachicola, Lieutenant Swift, in his excellent report upon that region, comments 
as follows: 
That the canning business can not be carried on to any great extent for any length of time is due 
to the fact that the supply of oysters is insufficient to supply the demand, notwithstanding that the 
packers have used every means they could to preserve the oyster-beds by refusing to take oysters 
under proper size, or out of season, or not properly culled, as well as alternating the use of different 
beds each season. 
This is perhaps an extreme case, yet sooner or later, corresponding with the 
wisdom with which the oyster question is administered, there must result a similar 
depreciation Of the natural beds along the entire coast. I can see no hope of the 
continued productiveness of our natural beds if they are made to bear the brunt of 
the yearly increasing demand. 
How to forestall the destruction of the natural oyster-reefs and how in a measure 
to prevent it by lessening the demands made upon them are the questions with which 
this paper sets out to deal. Those who have studied the problem are a unit in the 
belief that the solution lies in the general adoption of oyster-culture under private 
ownership and as a result of private enterprise. Government can do but little. Wise 
laws rigidly and judiciously enforced can stimulate private ventures and retard reck- 
less waste of the public possessions, but our oyster-beds can never be repopulated by 
the methods which have in many cases proven so beneficial in restocking our streams 
with food and game fish. It is not my purpose to deal here with the methods and 
details of oyster-culture, as these subjects have been recently treated of in the publi- 
cations of the U. S. Fish Commission, 1 but rather in a general way to point out the 
conditions which make for success and to consider in an equally general manner the 
extent to which those conditions are fulfilled on the Gulf coast from Florida to Texas. 
The Gulf States present many physical and biological characters which render 
them especially favorable to oyster-culture, and they also present some serious draw- 
backs. In determining the qualifications of any given region six important factors 
have to be considered — (1) density of the water, (2) temperature of the water, (3) char- 
acter and consistency of the bottom, (4) the quantity of oyster food, (5) the presence or 
absence of enemies, and (6) the character of the legislation and the success with which 
it is enforced. Each of these factors with its cognates will be considered in turn. 
DENSITY OF WATER. 
If a chart of the oyster-grounds of the Atlantic and Gulf seaboards were prepared 
it would show that the oyster is confined almost exclusively to bays, sounds, and 
estuaries, and that it is never found in places remote from inflowing streams. On the 
other hand, it is sooner or later killed when exposed to the fresh water or that which 
is nearly fresh, and it is therefore only where the fresh and saltwaters blend that it is 
able to establish itself and thrive. It is customary to measure the salinity of sea water 
by weight, an equivalent bulk of distilled water being accepted as the unit of compari- 
son. So expressed, the best conditions of salinity for our eastern oysters are met when 
the density measures between 1.009 and 1.020. Oysters will live indefinitely in a 
density 4 degrees below or 2 degrees above the limit stated, but Ihey then rarely or 
never attain their best conditions of shape, flavor, and general excellence. Prolonged 
See Report U. S. Fish Commission 1897, pp. 263-340. 
