304 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
also prevent the use of natural beds except for seeding purposes, aud thus compel and 
induce the proper cultivation of the oyster, a mine of untold wealth will be opened 
both for her own exchequer and the people. 
The difficulties, dangers, and delays of transportation are being rapidly overcome 
by railways and canals — some already built and others projected — penetrating many of 
the best oyster regions; and if capital be properly encouraged and protected in its 
investment, as it assuredly will be, the day is not far distant when the product will 
be immeasurably increased, the price for home consumption greatly reduced, and an 
export trade established which will supply the whole of the Western territory of the 
United States, from the Mississippi to the Pacific coast, at reduced prices. Hot only 
to the capitalist is the field open, but to the skilled oyster-culturists of Chesapeake and 
Delaware bays, Long Island Sound, and the Connecticut shores the State offers cheap 
oyster-lands for sale or rent, and a free supply of seed. To all such, with a mini- 
mum of capital but with skilled industry and energy, she opens her arms to welcome 
them to a home on the verge of her “summer sea,” beneath skies which hardly know 
what winter is, and to cheer them on to fortune and her own industrial development. 
This is no fair seeming but false promise, but one tendered in all sincerity and based 
on facts which the writer has been careful to understate rather than to overestimate. 
Hew Orleans, Louisiana. 
