80 OYSTER BEDS OF JAMES RIVER, VIRGINIA. 
CONCLUSION. 
The foregoing gives, in detail and summary, the facts as to the con- 
dition of the oyster beds of James and Nansemond rivers immediately 
prior to the opening of the present oyster season, the period at which 
the beds are at their maximum apparent productiveness. Within a 
few weeks, under the intensive fishery which they sustain, the 
quantity of oysters on the beds will be vastly reduced and long 
before the close of the season they will become so impaired that work 
on them will be practically abandoned for the time being. In other 
words, it is for a part of the season only that these beds will offer a 
livelihood to the tongers, who for the rest of the year must seek a 
living either in the employ of the oyster grower or in some other 
occupation not connected with oyster fishing. 
In the determination of the nature of tidal bottoms, with respect 
to their being regarded as oyster rock or barren bottom, the prime 
consideration is whether they will afford, either at present or pro- 
spectively, a sufficient quantity of oysters to provide a livelihood to 
those who work on them. It is manifest that a few oysters which 
could never be taken with profit should not entitle the bottom on 
which they lie to be regarded as an oyster bed within the meaning 
of the laws. To so regard them would be contrary to common sense, 
economic principles, and judicial decisions. 
The author has avoided a definition of what constitutes a liveli- 
hood, believing that to be a matter which is more properly for deter- 
mination by the state authorities should its definition become 
necessary for purposes of legislation or administration. In the 
preparation of the foregoing report, however, it has been necessary 
to adopt some standard for the classification of the various densities 
of oyster growth in the several beds, and for purposes of convenience 
the limit between the bottoms regarded as depleted and those of the 
lowest class of productiveness has been placed at a minimum believed 
to be reasonably irreducible. The subdivisions of productiveness 
differ by such small quantities that should it appear that the lowest 
is too low the next higher can be regarded as the minimum without 
impairing the value of the data adduced in the report, though, as is 
elsewhere indicated, this would dictate a reduction in the estimated 
total available product of oysters for the season. 
Under the terms of the resolution of the State Board of Fisheries 
which was made the basis of the request for the survey preferred to 
the Bureau of Fisheries by the Governor of Virginia, the author is 
not warranted in offering recommendations as to the use which 
might be made of the facts developed in the preceding pages. It may 
not be inappropriate, however, to point out the several avenues of 
procedure which it is possible to follow in respect to the oyster 
