OYSTER BEDS OF JAMES RIVER, VIRGINIA. 75 
Summarized Content of Young Oysters on Public Grounds. 
Name of ground. 
Dense. 
Scatter- 
ing. 
Very scat- 
tering. 
Depleted. 
Total. 
Nansemond No. 2 
Bushels. 
| 31,818 
Bushels. 
86,050 
Bushels. 
26,854 
Bushels. 
57,038 
50 
2,500 
Bushels. 
201,760 
50 
3,250 
Isle of Wight No. 6 
Nansemond No. 3 
Isle of Wight No. 2 
250 
500 
Isle of Wight No. 3 
Isle of Wight No. 4 
Isle of Wight No. 5 
Isle of Wight No. 6 
Warwick No. 1 and No. 2 (below Deep Creek) 
121,774 
53,287 
58,353 
19,002 
252,416 
Total 
153,842 
212 
33.7 
139,837 
148 
30.6 
85,207 
84 
18.6 
78,590 
35 
17.1 
457, 476 
Average per acre 
Per cent 
100.0 
Here again is evidence that the areas of dense and scattering 
growth should be regarded as not only at present but prospectively 
productive beds. In quantity, and to a greater extent numerically, 
the young are considerably in excess of the market oysters, and, as in 
both classes of bottom under consideration the latter are sufficient to 
render the bottom undoubtedly at present productive, the abun- 
dance of young is sufficient to continue productiveness, under proper 
regulations as to culling, for at least two years. After the lapse of 
that period the condition will depend upon the extent of the strike, 
and other factors concerning which nothing can be predicted. 
So far as the areas covered with a very scattering growth are 
concerned closer scrutiny is required. As these bottoms are on the 
verge of depletion in respect to market oysters, the proportion of 
young to large oysters should be greater to insure that the conditions 
will improve in the future. 
The writer is not in possession of definite experimental data appli- 
cable specifically to the James River, but from a knowledge of con- 
ditions in other parts of the Chesapeake region he feels justified in 
assuming that oysters as an average will become fit for market in 
from two to three years from the time of fixation or setting. If 
experience elsewhere be a guide, some oysters will grow more rapidly 
and some less rapidly; but two years may be adopted, with very 
little question, as an irreducible minimum for the average age at 
which they can be advantageously put on the market. On this 
assumption and neglecting, for the time being, the question of mor- 
tality, it is at once apparent that to maintain the present status 
there must be two small oysters for each market oyster killed or 
caught. 
There is noway to determine, without long and painstaking obser- 
vations, the actual average mortality at various ages on the natural 
rocks of James River. The experience of planters of seed oysters is 
valueless in this connection, being based on oysters handled and 
