282 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
that when they fail it is due to starfish or drills or mud or any one of a dozen other 
factors, rather than to improvident management. It must be remembered that but a 
modicum of these eggs reach maturity, else our bays and estuaries would long ere this 
have been converted into beds of limestone. Broadly speaking, nature piovides for 
the perpetuation of her species either by means of a few eggs well protected, or many 
eggs left, as it were, to chance. To the biologist the simple fact that the oyster is so 
prodigiously prolific is ample indication that its existence from the egg is a precarious 
one. Its life is a constant passive struggle with physical conditions, its enemies, and 
its brethren, and fortunate indeed is the oyster regiou where, of every million eggs 
produced, one reaches marketable dimensions. 
An important, in fact an essential, element in the oyster’s salvation is the presence 
of a solid body to which to affix itself when it is ready to settle down at the conclu- 
sion of its free swimming condition. It is then so exceedingly minute that a film of 
mud not thicker than a sheet of paper is sufficient to stifle it. It will attach itself to 
almost, anything fairly free from sediment, but on the oyster-beds such objects are 
almost exclusively living oysters or dead shells. A depleted bed differs from a 
vigorous one in two particulars: In the scarcity and scattered distribution of spawning 
individuals, and, perhaps more disastrously, in the paucity of suitable places of 
attachment for the young. From both causes the reproductive capacity of the bed is 
reduced, but were the culled and dead shells returned to the bed both conditions 
would be ameliorated. Under any system, however, even with good culling laws and 
close seasons, it is hopeless to expect to supply the demand for any length of time 
wholly from the natural beds. The only way in which to prevent their ultimate 
depletion is to supply our markets largely from other sources; that is to say, we must 
resort extensively to oyster-culture; and the character of legislation and the success 
with which it is enforced are determining factors in the success or failure of the 
undertaking. 
Liberal measures must be adopted, and opportunities, if not inducements, must 
be offered. Private ownership must be established, and more especially the rights of 
property in the planted beds must be vigorously enforced. More than this the State 
can not well do. The methods of fish-culture are not now, and probably never will 
be, available in propagating the oyster. Fish culture in many of its phases is a 
legitimate and proper function of government, as all members of the community ? 
whether they be catchers or consumers of fish, partake of its benefits. In most cases, 
owing to the nomadic character of the species propagated, private enterprise has no 
inducements for engaging in it except those of philanthropy. Not so with oyster 
planting as at present practiced, for only he who sows reaps. Dr. Ryder once said 
“ Oysters are like potatoes, they stay where they are planted.” All that the planter 
need ask of the Government is to be placed on an equal footing with every other 
citizen; to be permitted to acquire, without prejudice to others, property adapted to 
his calling, and to be protected in his rights after acquirement. 
With this understanding the first question to arise is how and where he may 
obtain such property. In some cases he may go into the markets and purchase lands 
conveying to him the ownership of coves or salt ponds, but such cases are rare and 
oyster-culture so confined would be unimportant indeed. Again, he might buy land on 
tide water and excavate ponds, but oyster-culture has not reached a stage where 
such methods would in general prove profitable. The only course left him, then, is to 
