70 
OYSTER BEDS OF JAMES RIVER, VIRGINIA. 
The foregoing may be assumed to be the maximum quantity of 
seed oysters that can be profitably taken from the beds during the 
present season and the actual yield will probably fall considerably 
below the total exhibited in the table. Of the total, the areas of dense 
growth are capable of producing 88 per cent, of scattering growth 9 
per cent, and of very scattering growth 3 per cent. The estimated 
yield per acre of bottom included within the boundary lines of this 
part of the bed is about 50 bushels. This low average of production 
is of course induced by the large area of barren and depleted or prac- 
tically barren bottom included in the Baylor lines. If we compare 
the average of the whole area with that of the best bottom in the 
natural rocks under discussion the paucity of the former is equally 
impressive, the dense areas of the region under discussion having an 
average total content of about 256 bushels per acre and a promised 
yield during the present season of 213 bushels, over four times the 
average of the beds as a whole. The average available product of the 
areas of scattering growth is about 64 bushels per acre, and of very 
scattering growth about 13 bushels, both yields being far below what 
they should produce under proper conditions. 
Upon the dense areas as a whole the present production and the 
promise for the future are both good, and on the area of scattering 
growth, while the present production is fair, the quantity of shells is 
such as to promise a better yield in the future, should there come a 
season of heavy and general strike. 
On the bottoms rated as bearing a very scattering growth the con- 
ditions as a whole are not such as to yield much profit to the tonger, 
though in some places he could make a living wage for a short period. 
In most places on bottom of this character the quantity of clean 
shells is such as to give indifferent prospect of the future regeneration 
of the beds. 
The depleted bottom, excepting in a few places near Deepwater 
Shoals Light-House, bears shells in such small quantities as to make 
exceedingly remote the probability of any material improvement 
under natural conditions. 
PUBLIC GROUND NO. 1 ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY. 
This ground extends as a narrow strip along the right bank of 
James River from close to the shore line out to the main channel, 
between Rock Wharf and Days Point Shoal. It lies wholly within 
the area set apart for seed production, and the statements in regard 
to the methods employed in computing the productiveness of the 
several parts of the preceding ground are applicable to this as well. 
Compared with the extensive areas occupied by the rocks across 
the river in Warwick County, the beds included in this ground are 
