310 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
if possible. The environments and advantages possessed by individuals have much 
to do with their powers of observation, and I speak to you after a residence of 
fifteen years near New Smyrna Inlet, undergoing the trials that attend those who, with 
unbounded hopes and limited resources, emigrate to a new country, leaving behind all 
with which they were formerly associated, and relying on the natural food resources 
to a great extent for sustenance. These conditions bring mankind in close relations 
with nature, and through the necessities of the case nature’s mysteries are unveiled. 
The utilization of the salt marshes of the coastwise country for the propagation 
of the oyster is, in my opinion, the solution of this most important problem — not to 
ignore the planting of oysters in the creeks, bays, and open waters of the State, but to 
introduce an intensive system, as it were, that will ultimately insure success. There 
can be no success without effort, and to the brains and brawn of our land are we 
indebted for all we possess. The same effort expended in labor or capital in reclaim- 
ing a portion of our salt marshes for the planting of the oyster I sincerely believe will 
result in greater financial returns than in any investment that could be made in either 
orange, vegetable, or tobacco culture, all conditions being the same. I may be assailed 
as an extremist, but it certainly will cost no more to prepare the ground in one case 
than in the other. The cost of fertilizer, the packages necessary for transportation, 
destruction by frost, and the necessity of securing a market at once or meeting an 
entire loss — these considerations, with many others, are ever present with the agri- 
culturist. The independence of the oyster-culturist arises from knowing that his 
product will keep until it can be disposed of advantageously, with no loss by frost or 
decay; and instead of seeking a purchaser, the purchaser seeks the product and pays 
a satisfactory price, and the producer only has to bag or deliver the goods. The 
conditions that now govern the transportation of Florida products are in favor of 
the oyster, for water communication renders competition possible and the industry 
profitable, which is not so in vegetable- culture except in special cases. 
Again, the natural enemies of the oyster in the open waters of the Southern 
States are neither so plentiful nor so destructive as in northern localities, nor are the 
vicissitudes of seasons so apparent, causing destruction by freezing, ground ice, and 
severe storms, often entailing great losses upon those investing in the industry. The 
climatic conditions of the South are in favor of the speedy maturity of the oyster by 
promoting the culture of the diatoms and infusoria upon which they subsist. In fact, 
but one serious objection exists to the propagation of good oysters in all localities, 
and that is the extreme density of the water in which they abound, on the one hand, 
and a periodical drowning out by a superabundance of fresh water by excessive rain- 
falls in certain localities, on the other hand. Were these two extremes so modified, 
either by natural or artificial means, the coastwise territory of the Southern States 
would exceed in productiveness the output of the North, producing larger and finer- 
flavored oysters in the same space of time without the attendant suffering from the 
rigors of a northern winter. 
Briefly stated, this can only be accomplished by utilizing our vast salt marshes 
and reducing the density, wherever required, by the use of surface water elevated by 
mechanical means, or the advautages obtained, if practical, by artesian wells to per 
form the same functions. Whether the sulphureted hydrogen usually present would 
prove detrimental, I am unable to state. I have been experimenting on that line for 
some time, but I can not say positively that it would prove injurious to the oyster in the 
quantities necessary to bring the salt water to the density required for its successful 
