302 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
As the trade is at present carried on the planter gets the benefit of the first 
difference in growth, and the luggerman the advantage of the difference between the 
bank and the market measure. Thus a person who both plants and markets his 
oysters, as we have said, would pay 30 cents a barrel bank measure, and from that 
barrel he would gather 1£ bank barrels of mature, marketable oysters, which, selling 
at, say, $3, he would get $6.60 for what he originally paid 60 cents. In other words, 
1 bank barrel of coon oysters worth 30 cents expands into 1J bank barrels of plants 
in six or eight months, which is 2^ market barrels, worth from $3 to $4 each. At $3 
per barrel the 30-cent purchase becomes worth $6; at $4 per barrel, $9. Of course, 
these prices are predicated on the lowest buying and selling rates, and on the basis of 
large purchases and sales in an ordinarily favorable market. These profits would be 
immensely increased if the spawn were scientifically protected, and the immature 
oysters were preserved from disease and numerous enemies by proper precautions 
now universally in vogue in the older countries and fully described in The Oyster by 
Professor Brooks ; Oemler’s Life History, Protection, and Propagation of the American 
Oyster; the reports of the United States Pish Commission; the reports of the oyster 
commissioners of many States, and other American and European literature on the 
same subject. 
That the field for investment is an inviting one, and is gradually becoming 
recognized as such by investors both within and without the State (and must become 
still more so as the subject is investigated and studied), is shown by the formation of 
several incorporated companies now engaged in the development of the industry. 
Outside of many small individual efforts in that direction, several associations have 
been formed, prominent among which are the Gulf and Bayou Cook Oyster Company, 
Limited, which owns the major portion of the lands in Bayou Cook and the valuable 
planting-grounds thereunto appertaining, and also the Louisiana Fish and Oyster 
Company, the latter of which is now in active operation, and the former will soon 
be, having just successfully terminated a long litigation with some of the Tacko 
“squatter” fishermen. 
The legislature of the State has just recently passed prudent acts for the 
protection of the fisheries, reserving the natural beds not heretofore granted for 
public use during the “open” season, providing for a somewhat proper police, as well 
as the leasing and selling of the State lands suitable for planting at moderate rates, 
and exacting a minimum tax to execute the law. The right of fishing for oysters 
is reserved to the citizens of the State alone. This law — which is imperfect in not 
closing for a longer period in each year the natural oyster beds, which have well 
nigh become exhausted, so as to allow them to recuperate and to be restored to their 
pristine fruitfulness — will probably be amended and perfected by future assemblies as 
the legislative mind becomes more educated on the subject, as it has been in the older 
States that have undergone the same experience in this respect. 
The Louisiana legislature at its last session passed a. resolution (No. 136 of 
session acts of 1896) that — 
The United States Fish Commission be requested to investigate the oyster-spawning season and 
report to this general assembly before its next session the exact season of the oyster spawning in this 
State, and all other facts respecting the same, and whether or not the present existing laws are not 
injurious to the oyster industry of this State. 
Of course such improvement will be strenuously opposed by the uneducated fish- 
ermen and the avaricious luggerman and dealer, who look no farther than the present 
