NATIONAL FISHERY CONGRESS. 
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pean shipments, and that section yet holds that trade, the bulk of their oysters being 
sold as barreled stock. The oysters there were threatened with the same extermina- 
tion as their northern neighbors, but the dealers finally realized the condition and 
successfully propagated and transplanted oysters from Chesapeake Bay. Some of the 
wealthiest and most extensive oyster firms of the world are located in Connecticut. 
The first shipping ventures were failures, as the oysters would not keep their valves 
closed long enough. This was remedied, however, by placing them deep side down 
or “right” side up, and in some cases the oysters were wired. The industry has 
increased yearly, and will no doubt continue to increase in that section so long as 
other sections consent to sacrifice their own oyster farms for the benefit of their rivals. 
The true secret of their success, however, is that the people respect the rights of 
others and confide in and respect the courts. 
When a reputation has been made for a certain class of oysters in the Forth, it 
never dies out. For example, take the “ blue points ” and famous “ saddle rocks.” 
The latter were discovered in the neighborhood of a submarine rock of that name, and 
the “trade-mark” became famous in the northern metropolis some thirty years ago. 
The beds were cleaned up in two seasons, yet Few York has never lacked “ saddle 
rocks ” from that day to this. The term is now only a name for large oysters, as “ blue 
point” is for any small oyster. 
The oyster planters of Long Island Sound must continually wage war against that 
terrible enemy in those waters, the starfish. These pests, like the “ borer,” will not 
live in fresh or brackish water. They require a strong ocean brine as their natural 
home. They are the enemy of the oysters on the ocean front as the army worm is to 
the crops on land. The “ borer ” or “ drill,” as well as the starfish, murders thousands 
of oysters in a season and causes a constant demand for fresh seed or plants from 
other localities. It is no infrequent occurrence for oystermen to dredge up as many as 
75 bushels of these pests in a single day’s work, and a steamer has hauled up several 
hundred bushels in a day. 
Some years ago our Connecticut friends found that the use of bare bushes planted 
on the beds greatly increased the yield of oysters, as young spat clings to the branches 
and develops rapidly; but it was claimed that oysters caused typhoid fever, and that 
it was due to the presence of these bushes, so a law was enacted which prohibited this 
method of cultivation. The best evidence that this was a mistake is found in the fact 
that typhoid fever developed in this section after the bushes disappeared, and the 
blame was then given to the oyster per se rather than to the manner of cultivation. 
But an expert commission of medical scientists has recently investigated this matter 
and found that typhoid fever was not traceable to the use of oysters. 
The oyster business of the Chesapeake Bay, according to the last census of the 
United States, represented the larger part of the entire value of the whole American 
fisheries — more than double the entire value of the cod fisheries of the Fewfoundlaud 
banks. It employs many thousands of people and is the perennial source of an immense 
business. There is no question, however, that the catch of oysters of the Chesapeake 
Bay region has fallen off lately. Just as in Florida, the tide- water counties of Mary 
land and Virginia look upon oysters and fish as public property. Human nature is 
the same in the frozen north or the tropic seas. If the State properly managed the 
matter it would yield revenue enough to pay a large part of the expenses of the State 
government. Yet adjoining States should cooperate in this legislation. 
