74 
OYSTER BEDS OF JAMES RIVER, VIRGINIA. 
computing the availability of the oysters lying on the bottom, its 
variations have been given the fullest possible consideration. For a 
discussion of the general principles on which the quantity of oysters 
available with profit have been determined, the reader is referred to 
preceding pages. For the market oyster beds as a whole the following 
table gives a summary: 
Summary op Available Content of Market Oysters on Public Grounds. 
Name of ground. 
Dense. 
Scatter- 
ing. 
Very scat- 
tering. 
Total. 
Nansemond No. 2 
Bushels. 
{ 21,150 
Bushels. 
20,325 
Bushels. 
1,600 
Bushels. 
43,075 
Isle of Wight No. 6 
Nansemond No. 3 
Isle of Wight No. 2 
150 
50 
200 
Isle of Wight No. 3 
Isle of Wight No. 4 
Isle of Wight No. 5 
Warwick No. 1 and No. 2 (below Deep Creek) 
41,300 
10, 100 
3,550 
54,950 
Total available market oysters 
62, 600 
86 
63.7 
30,475 
32 
31.0 
5, 150 
5 
5.3 
98,225 
Average per acre 
Per cent 
100.0 
This may be regarded as a maximum estimate of the probable 
3 r ield of the beds during the season of 1909-10. Owing to the low 
basis adopted as a minimum wage the yield may not reach the quan- 
tity indicated, as it is doubtful whether the beds can be profitably 
fished as closely as has been assumed. A yield of SI. 35 per full day 
of tonging will leave a very small balance after culling and other 
expenses are deducted, and the beds undoubtedly will be abandoned 
for the season before this degree of depletion has been reached. For 
this reason the only parts of the natural rock which can be classed as 
really productive are those designated as dense and scattering, which 
furnish, according to the foregoing estimates, about 95 per cent of the 
available product while constituting only about 13 per cent of the 
total area of the public grounds under consideration. 
Taken as a whole, though there are exceptions noted in the pre- 
ceding accounts of the individual rocks, the areas covered with very 
scattering growths are of but little present value, their total esti- 
mated available product during the present season being valued at 
less than $2,500, or about $2.50 per acre. There is, however, another 
phase to the question which has been touched on in the more de- 
tailed accounts of the individual rocks. This is the possibility of 
future improvement, and is dependent upon the existing quantity 
of young oysters and the presence of an ample supply of clean shells 
to serve as places of attachment for future generations of young. 
The quantity of young oysters less than 3 inches long on the public 
grounds under discussion at the opening of the present oyster season 
was as follows: 
