62 OYSTER BEDS OF JAMES RIVER, VIRGINIA. 
It will be observed that on the basis assumed in this report the 
depleted areas are wholly unproductive commercially, and the 
bottoms covered with very scattered growth are practically so. On 
the latter the growth in many cases is barely sufficient to yield 3 
bushels per day, and in no case does it much exceed that limit. The 
large aggregate of market oysters on the areas of very scattered and 
depleted bottoms are so thinly distributed as to be unavailable 
commercially, and are therefore valueless except as brood stock to 
assist in furnishing spat for replenishing the beds. On the dense 
areas about three-fourths of the total contents and on the scattering 
growths about one-half may be taken with profit. 
The total estimated available product of 43,075 bushels appears 
very small as compared with the area included within the Baylor 
lines, averaging but about 6 bushels per acre. It is about half of the 
average yield of marketable oysters on the public grounds of the 
State as a whole in 1901 and 1904, according to the statistics of the 
Bureau of Fisheries, and about equal to the average yield in 1908, as 
stated by the Bureau of the Census. 
The deficiency in productiveness of this section was to be expected 
in view of public report. The beds, especially in Nansemond River, 
are generally recognized as being seriously depleted, the allegation of 
the tongers being that several years ago la^ge quantities of unculled 
stock were taken from the beds for deposit on private planting ground, 
and the tonger employed by the survey is authority for the statement 
that the growth on the Nansemond River beds in the season preceding 
the investigation was hardly sufficient to warrant tonging. 
Combining the exhibits of the tables of areas and of commercially 
available oysters, we find that it apparently would be profitable to 
take from the dense growths about 83 bushels per acre and from the 
scattering growths an average of about 32 bushels. On the bottoms 
with a very scattering growth the average content per acre at the 
beginning of the present oyster season was so small that, even under 
the very low standard of profit adopted in this report, the beds would 
be reduced to unproductiveness after an average of only about 3 
bushels of oysters per acre had been removed. Of course a very large 
part of this bottom must be regarded as practically unproductive 
in the beginning, and it is only here and there that even the least 
ambitious tonger would venture to work. 
Another aspect of the present state of these grounds is the production 
of young oysters and the presence of shells in such quantities and 
cleanliness as to afford prospect of a strike under proper conditions. 
The following table gives the estimated total content of the several 
rocks and of the grounds as a whole in oysters less than 3 inches long: 
