294 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
market value, and if a planting industry were established the small or poor oysters 
would find a much better market among the planters than at the shucking-houses. 
The oysters referred to are those measuring 2J inches and over, for it is assumed 
that no change will occur in the present regulations of the common fishery so far as 
the cull law is concerned. 
2. The cultivators would doubtless remove predaceous enemies from their areas 
and this would decrease the number left to feed on the public reefs. 
3. If by reason of fishery or natural effects the oysters on a public reef should 
be so fully removed or destroyed as to not leave sufficient for breeding purposes, the 
proximity of private oyster beds would supply the deficiency in spat. 
4. By engaging the attention of a number of the oystermen it would to some 
extent relieve the public reefs of the extensive fishery to which they are now being 
subjected and leave a greater quantity of oysters for those persons continuing to resort 
to those areas. 
Ostreiculture in some States has to contend with an adverse movement brought 
on by its supposed friends rather than its enemies. The profits of few vocations have 
been so extravagantly represented as those of the one under discussion. The enthu- 
siastic amateur agriculturist who writes on u 5 acres enough,” has his counterpart 
in the field of ostreiculture. Reports evidencing great labor in preparation have 
gravely predicted an average annual product in Maryland of hundreds of millions 
of bushels of oysters under a wise system of regulations. The adoption of a system 
of oyster- culture dependent for its success upon the realization of such expectations 
would doubtless result in failure. The conditions of aquiculture in this country, or 
in any other country, do not warrant such anticipations, and they have done much to 
retard the adoption of a practicable system of regulation for private oyster-culture in 
many States. These extravagant ideas of production are not understood by the bay 
men, and their acceptance by persons unfamiliar with the growth of oysters leads to 
a difference of opinion which can be reconciled only when the truth of the subject is 
understood. It has resulted in the development of the feeling that the present barren 
bottoms are of enormous value, and should be parted with only at prices so high that 
persons of small resources can not obtain them, and renders the development of exten- 
sive ostreiculture thereon impracticable. 
It is questionable whether there is a single square mile of water area in America 
that has produced annually during the last ten years 400 bushels to the acre. It is 
true that there are many planting areas from which even 1,000 or more bushels to the 
acre are annually removed. But the oysters are not produced there; being obtained 
elsewhere, they are bedded in the spring and are taken up during the succeeding 
winter. They are little more the produce of those areas than are cattle slaughtered 
in abattoirs the product of the few acres of grazing land attached thereto. 
The system of private oyster-culture at present practiced in Connecticut is admired 
by every one familiar with it. It has resulted in creating a new industry for the 
employment of capital and labor, in distributing $1,000,000 annually among the 
workmen along the shore of that State, and extending and cheapening the food 
resources of the country. Yet the average annual yield of the 60,000 acres held by. 
individuals is only 25 bushels per acre. About one-half of this area, however, is not 
utilized, and the cultivated portion yields annually about 50 bushels per acre. The 
tax imposed by that State is about 10 cents per acre, and should this be increased to 
