University of Virginia Library

OYSTER FARMING IN AMERICA.

The American system of oyster farming, which presents
some features of resemblance to the French system,
and also many differences, has grown up as the
result of private enterprise, without any help or any
direct encouragement from government.

The French people are generally held to be the originators
of modern oyster farming, but, as an American,
I take pleasure in pointing out that our own industry,
which is now so extensively developed in Connecticut,
has not been borrowed from France, but has
grown up independently.

Several years before Coste and De Bon commenced
their experiments, the oystermen of East River, having
observed that young oysters fastened in great
numbers upon shells which were placed upon the
beds at the spawning season, started the practice of
shelling the beds, in order to increase the supply, and
in 1855, or three years before Coste represented to the
French Emperor the importance of similar experiments,
the State of New York enacted a law to secure
to private farmers the fruits of their labor, and a number
of persons engaged in the new industry on an extensive
scale. Among these pioneers in this field were
Mr. Fordham, Capt. Henry Bell, Mr. Oliver Cook, Mr.
Weed, Mr. Hawley and others.

The industry has grown steadily from that time,
and East River is now said by Ingersoll to be the
scene of the most painstaking and scientific oyster culture
in the United States, and the interest and importance
of the subject is so great that I quote the whole

of Ingersoll's account of its origin, development, and
present methods:

"I have no doubt that, whatever was the date of its
origin, the credit of first truly propagating oysters from
seed caught upon artificial beds or prepared receptacles,
belongs to the men of City Island. It had been
a matter of common observation that any object tossed
into the water in summer became covered at once
with infant oysters. The sedges along the edge of the
marshes, and the buoys, stakes and wharf-piles were
similarly clothed. If the circumstances were favorable
this deposit survived the winter, and the next spring
the youngsters were large enough to be taken and
transplanted. It was only a short step in logic, therefore,
to conclude that if objects were thrown thickly
into the water on purpose to catch the floating spawn,
a large quantity of young oysters would be secured,
and could be saved for transplanting at very slight
expense. The next question was—What would best
serve the purpose? Evidently, nothing could be better
than the shells which, year by year, accumulated
on the shore from the season's opening trade. They
were the customary resting-places of the spawn, and
at the same time were cheapest. The City Island oysterman,
therefore, began to save his shells from the
lime-kiln and the road-master, and to spread them on
the bottom of the bay, hoping to save some of the oyster
spawn with which his imagination densely crowded
the sea-water. This happened, I am told, more than
fifty years ago, and the first man to put the theory into
practice, it is remembered, was the father of the Fordham
Brothers, who still pursue the business at City

Island. In 1855 Captain Henry Bell, of Bell's Island,
planted shells among the islands off the mouth of Norwalk
River, and a short time after, under the protection
of the new law of 1855, recognizing private property
in such beds, Mr. Oliver Cook, of Five Mile
River; Mr. Weed, of South Norwalk; Mr. Hawley, of
Bridgeport, and others, went into it on an extensive
scale. Some of these gentlemen appear never to have
heard of any previous operations of this sort. Discovering
it for themselves, as it was easy and natural
to do, they supposed they were the originators; but if
any such credit attaches anywhere, I believe it belongs
to the City Island men. It was soon discovered that
uniform success was not to be hoped for, and the
steady, magnificent crops reaped by the earliest
planters were rarely emulated. Many planters, therefore,
distrusted the whole scheme, and returned to
their simple transplanting of natural-bed seed; but
others, with more consistency, set at work to improve
their chances by making more and more favorable the
opportunities for an oyster's egg successfully to attach
itself, during its brief natatory life, to the stool prepared
for it, and afterward to live to an age when it was
strong enough to hold its own against the weather.
This involved a closer study of the general natural
history of the oyster.

"The first thing found out was that the floating
spawn would not attach itself to or `set' upon anything
which had not a clean surface; smoothness did
not hinder—glass bottles were frequently coated outside
and in with young shells—but the surface of the
object must not be slimy. It was discovered, too,

that the half-sedimentary, half-vegetable deposit of the
water, coating any submerged object with a slippery
film, was formed with marvelous speed. Thus shells
laid down a very few days before the spawning-time
of the oysters sometimes become so slimy as to catch
little or no spawn, no matter how much of it is floating
in the water above them. This taught the oystermen
that they must not spread their shells until the midst
of the spawning season; that one step was gained
when they ceased spreading in May and waited until
July. Now, from the 5th to 15th of that month is
considered the proper time, and no shell-planting is
attempted before or after."

These dates are for the waters of New York. In
Maryland, the month of June is most favorable for the
attachment of spat. The date varies, however, according
to the locality, the depth of water, the character
of the season and other influences. Good judgment
as to the proper time for shelling the bottom can
be acquired only by experience, but a series of exact
experiments in different parts of the bay would be of
great value, as they would afford data for the guidance
of private cultivators.

"The knowledge of the speed with which the shells
become slimy was turned to account in another way.
It was evident that the swifter the current the less
would there be a chance of rapid fouling. Planters,
therefore, chose their ground in the swiftest tideways
they could find."

"The mere manner of spreading the shells was also
found to be important. If they are rudely dumped
over, half their good is wasted, for they lie in heaps.

The proper method is to take them from the large
scow or sloop which has brought them ashore, in
small boat-loads. Having anchored the skiff, the
shells are then flirted broadcast in all directions, by
the shovelful. The next boat-load is anchored a little
farther on, and the process repeated. Thus a thin
and evenly-distributed layer is spread over the whole
ground. Just how many bushels a man will place on
an acre depends upon both his means and his judgment.
If he is shelling entirely new ground, he will
spread more than he would upon an area already improved;
but I suppose 250 bushels to the acre might
be recommended as an average quantity."

This is very much too small a quantity, and in our
waters, five or six times as many shells, from 1000 to
1200 bushels, should be used.

"Having spread his shells in midsummer, the planter,
by testing them early in the fall, can tell whether he has
succeeded in catching upon them any or much of the
desired spawn. The young oysters will appear as
minute flakes, easily detected by the experienced eye,
attached to all parts of the old shell. If he has got no
set whatever, he considers his investment a total loss,
since by the next season the bed of shells will have
become so dirty that the spawn will not take hold if it
comes that way. Supposing, on the contrary, that
young oysters are found attached in millions to his
cultch, as often happens, crowding upon each old
shell until it is almost hidden, what is his next step?

"The ordinary way in the East River and elsewhere,
is simply to let the bed remain quiet, until, in
the course of three or four years, such oysters as have

survived are large enough to sell, when the bed is
worked—at first, probably, with tongs and rakes, getting
up the thickest of the crop. This done, dredges
are put on, and everything that remains—oysters,
shells, and trash—is removed and the ground left
clean, ready for a second shelling, or to be planted
with seed.

"In the process of growth of the young oysters
lodged upon the fields of cultch, when left undisturbed,
there is, and must of necessity be, a great
waste under the most favorable circumstances. Leaving
out all other adversities, this will arise from overcrowding.
More `blisters' attach themselves upon a
single shell than can come to maturity. One or a few
will obtain an accession of growth over the rest, and
crowd the others down, or overlap them fatally. Even
if a large number of young oysters attached to a single
stool do grow up together equally, their close
elbowing of one another will probably result in a
closed, crabbed bunch of long, slim, unshapely samples,
of no value save to be shucked. To avoid these
misfortunes, and, having got a large quantity of young
growth, to save as much as possible of it, the more
advanced and energetic of the planters, like the Hoyts,
of Norwalk, pursue the following plan: When the
bed is two years old, by which time all the young oysters
are of sufficient age and hardiness to bear the
removal, coarse-netted dredges are put on, and all the
bunches of oysters are taken up, knocked to pieces,
and either sold as `seed,' or redistributed over a new
portion of bottom, thus widening the planted area, and
at the same time leaving more room for those single

oysters to grow which have slipped through the net
and so escaped the dredge. The next year after, all
the plantation, new and old, is gone over and suitable
stock culled out for trade, three-year old East River
oysters being in demand for the European market.
This further thins out the beds, and the following
(fourth) year the main crop of fine, well-shaped, well-fed
oysters will be taken, and during the succeeding
summer, or perhaps after a year, the ground will be
thoroughly well cleaned up and prepared for a new
shelling.

"All these remarks apply to a reasonably hard
bottom which requires no previous preparation. In
portions of Long Island Sound, especially off New
Haven, it has been needful to make a crust or artificial
surface upon the mud before laying down the shells.
This is done with sand, and has been alluded to in
the chapter on New Haven harbor.

"Just what makes the best lodgment for oyster-spawn
intended to be used as seed, has been greatly
discussed. Oyster shells are very good, certainly, and
as they are cheap and almost always at hand in even
troublesome quantities, they form the most available
cultch, and are most generally used. Small gravel,
however, has been tried on parts of the Connecticut
coast with great success, the advantage being that not
often more than one or two oysters would be attached,
and therefore the evil of bunchiness would be avoided.
Where scallop shells, as in Narragansett Bay, or, as in
northern New Jersey mussels and jingles, Anomia, can
be procured in sufficient quantities, they are undoubtedly
better than anything else, because they not only

break easily in culling, but are so fragile that the strain
of the growth of two or more oysters attached to a
single scallop or mussel-valve will often crack it in
pieces, and so permit the several members of the bunch
to separate and grow into good shape singly. I am
not aware that any of the elaborate arrangements made
in France and England for catching and preserving
the spat have ever been imitated here, to any practical
extent. The time will come, no doubt, when we shall
be glad to profit by this foreign example and experience.

"Although the effort to propagate oysters by catching
drifting spawn upon prepared beds has been tried
nearly everywhere from Sandy Hook to Providence,
it has only, in the minority of cases, perhaps I might
say a small minority of cases, proved a profitable
undertaking to those engaging in it; and many planters
have abandoned the process, or at least calculated but
little upon any prepared beds, in estimating the probable
income of the prospective season. This arises
from one of two causes: 1st, the failure of spawn to
attach itself to the cultch; or, 2d, in case a `set' occurs,
a subsequent death or destruction.

"The supposition among oystermen generally has
been that the water everywhere upon the coast was
filled, more or less, with drifting oyster-spat during
the spawning season, whether there was any bed of
oysters in the immediate neighborhood or not. In
other words, that there was hardly any limit to the time
and distance the spat would drift with the tides, winds
and currents. I think that lately this view has been
modified by most fishermen, and I am certain it greatly

needs modification; but, as a consequence of the
opinion, it was believed that one place was as good as
another, so long as there was a good current or tideway
there, to spread shells for spawn, whether there were
any living oysters in proximity or not. But that this
view was fallacious, and that many acres of shells have
never exhibited a single oyster, simply because there
was no spat or sources of spat in their vicinity, there is
no reason to doubt.

"Having learned this, planters began to see that
they must place with or near their beds of shells living
mother-oysters, called `spawners,' which should supply
the desired spat. This is done in two ways—either by
laying a narrow bed of old oysters across the tideway
in the center of the shelled tract, so that the spawn, as
it is emitted, may be carried up and down over the
breadth of shells waiting to accommodate it, or by
sprinkling spawners all about the ground, at the rate
of about ten bushels to the acre. Under these arrangements,
the circumstances must be rare and exceptional
when a full set will not be secured upon all shells
within, say twenty rods of the spawners. Of course
fortunate positions may be found where spawn is produced
from wild oysters in abundance, or from contiguous
planted beds, where the distribution of special
spawners in unnecessary; yet even then it may be said
to be a wise measure.

"The successful capture of a plenteous `set,' however,
is not all of the game. This must grow to salable
maturity before any profits can be gathered, and it
so often happens that the most promising beds in September
are utterly wrecked by January, making a total

loss of all the money and labor expended, that more
than one planter has decided that it does not pay to
attempt to raise oysters upon shells, so long as he is
able to buy and stock his grounds with half-grown
seed—a decision which may be based upon sound
reasoning in respect to certain localities, but which
certainly will not apply to all of our northern coast.

"The great drawback to East River oyster-planting,
of every kind, is the abundance of enemies with
which the beds are infested. These consist of drum-fish,
skates, and, to a small degree, of various other
fishes; of certain sponges and invertebrates that do
slight damage, and of various boring molluscs, the
crushing winkle, and the insidious star-fish or sea-star.
It is the last-named plague that the planter dreads the
most, and the directly traceable harm it does amounts
to many tens of thousands of dollars annually in this
district alone. Indeed, it seems to have here its headquarters
on the American oyster coast, where it has
utterly ruined many a man's whole year's work."

Ingersoll states that 20 bushels of shells laid down
anywhere in the upper part of Barnegat Bay, New
Jersey, will produce 100 bushels of seed oysters, but
that there is no protection for this industry, as popular
construction makes such beds "natural ground."

At Brookham Bay, off the south coast of Long
Island, in the region of the well-known "blue point"
oysters, it has been the custom for several years to lay
down shells, scrap-tin, etc., for the attachment of the
young, and when this is done near any oyster-bed, or
whenever spawning oysters are planted among the
shells, there is rarely a failure to get plenty of young.

The Delaware planters often find that after a bottom
has been used for many years for planting, the young
oysters grow upon the shells which gradually accumulate,
and a very valuable artificial oyster-bed is thus
established. The law-abiding citizens respect the private
ownership of these beds, and they are a source of
wealth to their possessor.

I quote from the "Report of the Shell-Fish Commissioners,"
of Connecticut, for 1883, the following
statement of the present condition of the industry in
that State:

"The deep-water cultivators proceed in three different
ways to make beds. (1). The bottom being properly
cleared off, the seed oysters, mixed with the
gravel, jingles and other shells just as they are gathered
from the natural beds, are distributed thereon more or
less uniformly, and there left to grow. (2). Or the
bottom is spread over with clean oyster shells just before
the spawning season begins, and brood oysters,
twenty-five bushels to the acre, are distributed over
the bed. (3). Or, if the bed is in the neighborhood of
natural beds, the shelled bed is left without further
preparation to catch the spawn as it is drifted above it.
Sometimes the shells fail to `catch a set,' and this
makes it necessary to rake over the shells the following
year, or to cover them over with more fresh shells
for the next spawning. There is always an abundance
of spawn in the waters of the Sound, and when a
set is secured an enormous crop is the result. On a
private deep-water bed, during the past summer, the
dredge was drawn at random in the presence of the
commissioners, and from an ordinary-size shovelful

there were counted 206 young oysters in excellent
condition, of the average size of a quarter of a dollar.
As many as a hundred young oysters have been
counted growing on a medium-sized oyster shell.

"The beds are carefully tended, and no pains are
spared to kill all the enemies of the oysters found
among them. By continual vigilance the private beds
are kept comparatively free from them. The larger
proprietors of deep-water beds use steamers for this
work, as also in doing their work of planting, raking
over and dredging, and they use larger dredges than
the sail vessels can, as they are also worked by steam
at a great saving of labor and expense. When the
oysters have grown on these beds to a merchantable
size they are sometimes sold directly from the beds,
but more frequently they are transplanted into brackish
or fresh waters, where they are permitted to remain
for a short period to freshen and fatten for market.

"The foregoing table affords the ground for the
assumption that by the time of the opening of spring
work, in 1883, 45,000 acres of ground will have been
deeded to applicants by the Commissioners. These,
with the 45,000 acres deeded by the towns prior to
May, 1881, will show an aggregate of 90,000 acres
held by cultivators under state jurisdiction.

"Of this vast area, a large portion has been cleared
up and shelled. One firm has laid down 250,000
bushels of shells. Several large growers have laid
down as many as 200,000 bushels each. A still larger
number have scattered a hundred thousand, fifty
thousand and twenty thousand each. There are about
30 steamers engaged in the business, besides a very

large number of sailing vessels. Shells that but a few
years ago were almost worthless, have increased in
value, and are sought after far and near. It is estimated
by competent judges that the number of acres
under cultivation is at least double what it was one
year ago. With trifling exceptions, good sets have
been secured upon the beds, and, if no unusual accidents
occur, the crop the next two years will be enormous.
One cultivator alone looks for no less than
1,000,000 bushels of marketable natives from his own
grounds. Several other growers, individuals and
companies, are looking for large crops, and all are
planning to still further extend their farms.

"It does not admit of a doubt that the business of
oyster-growing as carried on in the waters of the
Sound, is exceedingly profitable."

The Connecticut oystermen have many obstacles
and risks, from which our own waters are free, and
many of the farms have been completely ruined by
starfish and other enemies, but notwithstanding all
these drawbacks, the crop, which was 336,000 bushels
in 1880, had increased in 1888 to 1,454,000 bushels.

During the period of his employment by the French
Government to replenish the oyster grounds, Coste
devised a number of plans for furnishing an attachment
for the oyster spat, and these devices have been
greatly improved by other experimenters.

Most of them could be employed in our own waters
with advantage, and in order to make our people
acquainted with them, we will give a brief description
of the more important substances which have been
thus employed. Some of them are adapted for certain

localities, while others can be used to best advantage
under other conditions. Our people have long been
noted for their ingenuity, and there is no doubt that,
as the great importance of oyster-farming comes to be
appreciated among us, we shall have many great improvements
in the methods of procuring seed oysters,
better adapted for our own needs than any which are
here described, but our account will serve to show
our people the general direction in which their inventive
skill must be directed.

Oyster Shells.—At present no spat-collector seems
to be better adapted for use in our waters upon hard
bottoms than oyster shells, and they are now the
cheapest collectors that can be used.

In order to serve this purpose the shells must be
perfectly clean, and as the old dead shells, which
have lain for a long time upon the oyster-beds, are
torn to pieces by the boring sponge and covered with
mud and slime, hydrioids, sea-weed and sponges, they
are much less effective than those which are placed in
the water just before the spawning season.

In regions where there is no danger from frost, or
where the young growth is to be planted in deeper
water before winter, the shells may be deposited at or
even above low-water mark, and in the sounds of
North Carolina oysters thrive even at high-tide mark.
The shells should be deposited in the early summer—
in June, July and August—in localities where there is
enough current to sweep the swimming young past
them. A hard bottom is to be preferred, but this
method may be employed with great advantage upon
any soft bottoms which are near the surface. In this

case the shells should not be uniformly distributed,
but placed in piles or ridges. If these ridges are
properly arranged with reference to the direction of
the current, they will produce secondary currents, and
will thus cause the soft mud to flow off between them.
In this way any bottom which is bare or nearly bare
at low tide, and which is exposed to the winds and
waves, may in time be swept nearly clear of mud.
Each time the tide comes in the mud is stirred up and
suspended in the water, and as the tide ebbs this suspended
matter is swept into the channels between the
obstructions and is carried away. Shells are very
effective as spat-collectors. Shell wharves built out
into deep water, so as to catch and turn the passing
current, are often found to be covered with young oysters
at all stages of growth and in good condition for
planting.

The month of June is usually the best time for
shelling the bottom. The early part of the month for
warm seasons and shallow water, and the end of the
month for cold springs, or for deep water. The
quantity of shells varies according to circumstances,
but in most cases 1000 bushels to the acre are not
too many.

In shallow waters, where the shells are uncovered at
low tide, they may be examined to pick out, for distribution
upon the planting grounds, those which have
young oysters upon them, but in deeper waters the
shells must be picked up with tongs or dredges, or
they may be strung upon wires and sunk in deep
water on suitable frames.

The chief objection to the use of shells is that the

method is a wasteful one. It is not unusual for fifty
or a hundred young oysters to fasten upon one shell,
and as the shells are too strong to be broken without
injuring the young oysters, these cannot be detached,
and most of them are soon crowded out and killed by
the growth of the others.

The use of tiles has, therefore, been introduced in
France to avoid this loss.

As tiles can be employed without difficulty in deep
water, they are well adapted for use in our bay. Those
which are used in France are much like a common
drain pipe sawed in two longitudinally. They cannot
be obtained in our markets at present, although they
could be made very cheaply if there were any demand
for them. Each tile is about 18 inches or 2 feet long,
6 or 8 inches wide, concave on one side and convex
on the other. The shape of the tile is important, as
nearly all the oysters fasten themselves upon the concave
surface. They adhere so firmly that it is difficult
to detach them without injury, and to avoid this the
French oyster-breeders coat the tiles with a thin whitewash,
which can be scaled off with the young oysters
when these are large enough to be distributed upon
the planting grounds.

The following is an account of the method of coating
the tiles as employed in France:

The liming is done in two very different ways at
Morbihan, according to whether it is intended to entirely
free the oysters from the tile, or to allow a portion
of the tile to remain attached to each shell.

When we come to speak of the removal of the oysters
from the collectors, we will make some remarks

concerning the matter of leaving a portion of the tile
attached to the young. For the present we will
merely state that under that system the tile is cut,
leaving a portion adhering to each oyster, forming a
sort of heel.

Some of our culturists, who breed oysters in this
manner, cover their tiles with a slight coating of
hydraulic cement. The young oyster attaches itself
to the cement, but the coating being very thin is soon
worn away, leaving the oyster quite firmly fixed to
the tile.

Others, on the contrary, who, six months after the
collectors have been set, prefer to separate the oysters
entirely from the tile with the blade of a knife, generally
cover the tile with two layers, and proceed in a
different manner.

Quicklime is slacked just before it is to be used, and
is put, while still in a state of ebullition, into a large
vat, where two-thirds the same quantity of sand have
been placed. The mixture is stirred until it has attained
the consistency of clear broth. The collectors,
held by the lower end, are dipped into the vat. One
immersion suffices, after which they are taken in hand-barrows
and exposed to the air to dry before setting
them up. This excellent coating should be prepared
with fresh water only; sea-water prevents its adhering
for any length of time to the tiles, and if it comes off
the labor is of course lost. After this coating of lime
has hardened, the tiles are dipped a second time into
a bath of hydraulic cement, after which they are ready
for use.

Tiles may be used as spat-collectors in either deep

or shallow water. On the French coast they are
chiefly employed above low-tide mark or in very shallow
water, and they are then spread out so as to
cover a considerable area. In some cases lines of
stakes are driven into the ground, about a foot apart,
transverse string-pieces are fastened to them about a
foot above the bottom, a row of tiles is laid upon
them, concave surface down, another row of tiles is
placed at right angles upon the first layer, and the
whole is weighted with stones. Other ways of arranging
the tiles are shown in Figs. 5, 6, and 7.

As soon as the oysters are large enough to handle,
they should be removed from the tiles and distributed
on the planting ground, for they usually become so
crowded together on the tiles that they have no room
to grow.

When used in deep water they may be fastened to
a frame, which may be sunk upon or near a natural
oyster-bed. So far as I am informed, Lieut. Francis
Winslow is the only person who has ever made use
of tile-collectors in American waters, but the remarkable
results which he obtained with them in Tangier
Sound, in 1879, show that they are well suited for
use in the waters of the bay, where they are perfectly
successful as spat-collectors.

Lieut. Winslow's interesting figures of these tiles
form the most complete record of the rate of growth
of oysters in the Chesapeake Bay which has ever been
obtained, and his results are so valuable that I have
copied six of his plates. He made use of a collector
which was made by lashing eight or sixteen tiles to a
wooden frame, which rested on the bottom upon a

natural bed of oysters, while the tiles themselves
were raised about six inches, and were joined by a
rope to a floating buoy to mark their position. An
apparatus of this sort was sunk in Big Annamessex
River on July 9, and on August 2,348 young oysters
were counted on one tile, which is shown in Plates
VIII and IX. On October 10, most of these had
grown to a size of three-quarters of an inch, as shown
in Plates XII and XIII.

Attempts to collect spat by artificial means are not
always successful, and experience has shown that
clean collectors are essential, and that failure is usuually
due to the presence of mud or other sediment
upon their surface. As this sediment accumulates
very rapidly, and as an extremely thin layer is enough
to prevent the young oysters from becoming firmly
fastened, it is important that the shells or other substances
which are employed be perfectly clean, and
that they be not put into the water until spawning
has commenced.

I have made many experiments in order to discover
the conditions which are most favorable for a good
"set" of spat, and I have satisfied myself that those
collectors are most reliable which are nearest the surface
of the water. They are much less exposed to
deposits of sediment than those in deeper water, and
my studies upon the embryology of the oyster have
shown that as soon as the embryo begins to swim it
comes to the surface, and swims for about two days
within half an inch of the top. I have been very successful
with floating collectors, and in Plate XIV I
have figured a boulder which had been for six weeks

Fig. 5.

Fig. 6.

Fig. 7.

in one of them, a few inches from the surface, and had
furnished a lodgment for many hundred oysters,
crowded so closely together that I was unable to
count them.

It frequently happens that bottoms where the spat
may be present in the water, are so muddy that such collectors
as tiles or shells cannot be used. The French
have invented a collector to be used in such cases as
this, which they call the fascine collector. This consists
of a bundle or fagot of small branches of chestnut,
oak, elm, birch, or any other suitable wood, about
ten or twelve feet long, bound together in the middle
by a tarred galvanized iron wire, which is fastened to
a stone, by which the bundle is anchored about a foot
above the bottom. These fascines are placed upon or
near the beds of oysters at the spawning season, and
are distributed in places where the set of the tides and
currents will carry the swimming oyster larvæ to
them. The young oysters settle upon the branches
in great numbers, and attaching themselves, grow
rapidly, and it is not unusual for one such fagot to
yield several thousand. The bundles are left undisturbed
for five or six months, and at the end of this
time they are large enough to be detached from the
branches, when they are ready for distribution upon
the planting grounds.

This method of collecting seed oysters has never,
so far as I am aware, been employed in this country,
although the experience of all who are familiar with
our oyster waters must have shown how readily the
young growth become attached to floating or sunken
bushes. Our waters abound in places which are well

fitted for the employment of this method of gathering
the seed which is to be used in planting, and the fascine
collectors might be used in the mouths of creeks
or inlets, or along the edges of the channels, or anywhere
where the set of the current will sweep the
swimming oysters past the collector. While it would
be advantageous to place the collectors near natural
beds or rocks, this is by no means essential, for the
young of the American oyster survive for a long
time in the water, and they are carried to great distances
by the current, and there is no part of our oyster
area beyond the reach of this floating spat.

The method may be employed on either hard or
soft bottom, as the collectors float above the surface of
the ground, but is especially adapted for bottoms too
soft for planting, and such bottoms may in this way
be made valuable as seed farms. The collectors may
be placed in either deep or shallow water, wherever
there is a current.

With the exception of Winslow's experiments with
tiles, very little use has been made in America of anything,
except oyster shells, for collecting spat; but at
one point in Connecticut, a plan which is essentially
like the one last described has been used with good
results for capturing spat, and for rearing marketable
oysters as well, upon bottoms of soft mud.

These experiments are thus described in the reports
of the Connecticut Shell Fish Commission for 1882
and 1883:

"The soft, muddy tracts, also, which aggregate a
large number of acres now neglected, it is believed will,
at no far distant day, become valuable for cultivation.

"The efforts made to grow oysters on muddy bottoms
in the Poquonock River, near Groton, to which
reference was made in the last year's report, have
been uniformly successful, as many as a thousand
bushels of superior oysters having been obtained from
one acre. No particular skill is required in carrying
on similar experiments, and it is probable that the
method will be generally followed throughout the
State, where similar bottoms are found.

"Artificial methods for catching spawn have received
little attention from Connecticut oyster growers,
except in the case at Groton hereinafter mentioned.
They are employed in a variety of ways in
Europe; clean bushes and fagots are anchored or
hung on chains in the vicinity of spawning beds,
where the prevailing currents will carry the floating
spawn to them. In this way immense quantities are
caught, and left to grow until ready for planting.
Clean earthen tiles, made for the purpose, are also
placed on and near the spawning grounds to catch
the spat, and they serve better than anything else for
this purpose. Another method is that of raising a
mound of rocks and gravel, about the time of spawning,
and covering its surface with ripe brood oysters;
around the mound are driven stout stakes or piles,
close together, so that the floating spat cannot easily
escape; being thus intercepted, spat adheres to the
stakes, and is there left until ready for planting.

"On the Poquonock River, near Groton, white
birch bushes are stuck in the river mud, about spawning
time, in fourteen or fifteen feet of water at low
tide. To these the spat adheres in great quantities.

They are left undisturbed eighteen months, by which
time the set becomes good-sized seed. On one bush,
which was four inches through at the butt, twenty-five
bushels of oysters were found, seven of which were
large enough for market. The average yield is about
five bushels to the bush. The grounds are so soft and
muddy that no other method is feasible. About fifty
acres are under this kind of cultivation, and the area
is rapidly extending. The bushes are grappled out
of the mud by derricks. The oysters are of excellent
flavor, and the business is profitable."

Besides such simple but very effective devices for
collecting spat, there have been invented in France a
number of complicated mechanical devices for use
under peculiar circumstances. The price of oysters
in our State is not high enough to justify the practical
use of any such expensive machinery, so it will be
unnecessary to speak of any of it.

The aim of all the methods of oyster culture which
have been described is to increase the number of oysters,
by furnishing proper substances for collecting the
swimming embryos at the time when they are ready
to attach themselves. In our waters, clean oyster shells
are in nearly all cases the best substances to use for
the purpose, and there is hardly a spot anywhere in
the bay which might not be converted into an oyster-bed
by this simple method of cultivation, which has
been shown, in all parts of the world where it has been
tried, to yield a very great return for the capital and
labor employed.

There are few parts of the world which offer advantages
for the prosecution of this industry equal

to those afforded by the bay, and there is no other
place where these advantages are presented on such a
great area of bottom. Our oyster grounds, of course,
vary in value, according to local conditions, and oyster
culture is much more easy and profitable in some
places than in others; but in course of time even the
soft, muddy bottoms of the deepest channels may be
brought under cultivation, and there is scarcely a
foot of the bottom where oysters cannot be reared.
The number of oysters which the bay might be made
to furnish annually is almost too great for computation,
but we may very safely assert that it is greater
than the total number which have been taken from our
waters in the past.

All that is needed in order to make this great
source of wealth available to our people, is permission
to engage in oyster culture. When the citizens of
Maryland demand the right to enter into this industry,
and to reclaim their property which is now going to
waste, a new era of prosperity will be introduced, and
the oyster area will be developed with great rapidity.

I have shown that upon undredged natural beds
solid substances become so thickly covered with young
oysters that they have no room to grow, so that most
of them are soon crowded out and killed.

All localities are not equally favorable for the collection
of spat, and in the best places the amount
which can be collected each season is very much
greater than the amount which it needed for stocking
the bottom. This excess can be profitably used as
"seed" for stocking bottoms in shallow, landlocked
bays, rivers, and other places which are less fitted for

the collection of spat. While oyster-planting, as the
sowing of these "seed" oysters is called, does not
result in the production of new oysters, it is a very
profitable industry, and it admits of great development.

The profits are smaller and the labor greater than
those of oyster culture in deep water, but oyster-planting
requires little capital, and the shores of the bay
abound in proper spots for the prosecution of this industry,
the importance of which has long been recognized
by our people.

There are many bottoms where there are no natural
oysters, simply because there is nothing upon the
ground for the spat to catch upon, or because they
are not places to which spat is carried; and there are
other bottoms which are so soft that a very young and
small oyster would be buried in the mud and killed,
although larger ones are able to live and thrive in the
mud. In all these places oyster-planting may be
carried on with profit, for while it is true that the total
number of oysters which are born is not increased by
planting, the number which reach maturity is greatly
increased; for the young oysters fasten themselves so
close together and in such great numbers that the
growth of one involves, under natural conditions, the
crowding out and destruction of hundreds of others,
which might have been saved by scattering them over
unoccupied ground.

Planting also adds very greatly to the value of oysters,
as they grow more rapidly and are of better
quality when thus scattered than they are upon the
natural beds, and Ingersoll, in his "Report on the Oyster

Industry of the United States," quotes the statement
of Captain Cox, of New Jersey, that thirteen
dollars' worth of small "seed" oysters yielded, after
they had been planted for two years, oysters which
were sold for $111, besides about thirty bushels which
were used as food by the planter's family.

Oyster-planting can be carried on only on private
grounds, and it cannot flourish in a community which
does not respect the right of the private owner to the
oysters which he has planted.

The "five-acre law" of Maryland puts it within the
power of any resident of the State to obtain land for
this purpose, but the industry has never attained to
much importance here, partly on account of the
absence of sufficient protection, and partly no doubt
through the feeling that our large and apparently
inexhaustible natural beds render private enterprise
unnecessary.

In Virginia more attention has been given to planting,
and in some of the States north of us all the land
that is fit for the purpose is thus occupied. In many
States, as in Delaware, a great part of New Jersey,
and especially in Rhode Island, the natural beds have
been so heavily drawn upon that they long ago ceased
to furnish any marketable oysters, and they are now
valuable only as a source from which a supply of
small oysters can be gathered each year for planting.
The spat from the few mature oysters which escape
the fishermen, and that which drifts into the beds from
the planting grounds and from the scattered oysters
which still exist in protected places, keep up the supply
from year to year, and its value is increased hundreds
of times by the planting system.

The industry does not require a large capital, and it
can be carried on with profit on a very small scale,
although the oysters need constant and intelligent attention.
In all places where it has been employed it
has added greatly to the prosperity of the communities
which have engaged in it, and has greatly increased
the population of the shores along which it has been
encouraged and protected.

A writer about thirty years ago states that the prosperity
and rapid increase of the population of Staten
Island are chiefly due to the encouragement and growth
of the oyster-planting industry. At Prince's Bay, on
that island, there has been some planting for more
than sixty years, but before the bottom was laid out
in private plantations there were very few persons living
there, and the land was almost uncultivated; while
in 1853 the number of inhabitants who depended
directly upon this business for support had increased
to over 3000.

In some of the Northern States oyster-planting has
been in existence for many years. Ingersoll states
that oysters have been planted in York Bay, in New
Jersey, since 1810, and that a suit was brought in
Shrewsbury, New Jersey, at about the same date, to
determine whether a man has the exclusive right to
the oysters which he has planted.

The history of the oyster industry of Rhode Island
furnishes an interesting illustration of the value of an
intelligent system of planting.

In 1865 laws were passed allowing the leasing to
private citizens, for a term of years, at an annual rental
of $10 per acre, of the right to plant oysters on any

bottoms which are covered with water at low tide and
are not within any harbor line, to be used as a
private oyster fishery for the planting and cultivation
of oysters, whether these lands contain natural
beds or not; and efficient laws were enacted for the
protection of private rights.

The effect of this measure has been good in every
respect. The revenue of the State has been greatly
increased, and it is stated that the rentals of the beds
will in time pay all the expenses of the State government.

In 1865 oysters sold for $1.75 per solid gallon; in
1878 the price was $1.15 to $1.10, and in 1879 it had
fallen to 90@95 cents.

In 1865 the product of the State was 71,894 bushels,
while in 1879 it was 660,500 bushels.

The area which was used for planting in 1879 was
only 962 acres, yet this area paid $6582.90 into the
State treasury; it employed a capital of over $1,000,000;
it paid $125,000 in wages to the people of the
State; it furnished the market with 660,500 bushels of
oysters, with $680,500 to the producers, and it gave
support to 2400 persons.

Until 1883 the Rhode Island grounds had been
used only for planting, and most of the seed oysters
were purchased from other States, yet the planted
oysters sold for three or four times the cost of the
seed, and it is doubtful whether there is any farming
land in the United States which yields as great a profit
to the acre as the bottoms which are used for oyster-planting
in Rhode Island.

Our little revenue to the State treasury of about

fifty thousand dollars from nearly a million acres
sinks into insignificance when compared with the
eleven thousand dollars which Rhode Island receives
from her eleven hundred acres, and her beds are constantly
improving in value, while ours are rapidly
becoming worthless under our present policy.

In the early days of Rhode Island oysters were
found there in the greatest abundance, but although
dredging was forbidden in 1766, under penalty of ten
pounds fine, the natural beds have been so depleted
by excessive tonging that they are now of little value,
and they supply only a very small part of the seed
used in planting. If all the area of our own State
which is proper for oyster-planting were used in this
way, it would, if no more profitable than the oyster
grounds of Rhode Island, bring the inconceivable
sum of two thousand million dollars into the hands of
the planters each year.

The oyster industry of Delaware furnishes an instructive
illustration of the value of oyster-planting.
The natural beds of this State are not equal to a two-hundredth
part of those of our State, but under a law
which allows any citizen to appropriate fifteen acres of
ground where there are no natural oysters, upon payment
of a fee of $25 and an annual license fee of $3
per ton for the boat used, a system of planting has
grown up which is encouraged by public sentiment
and is a great source of wealth.

Until recent times nearly half of the million bushels
of seed oysters which were planted annually upon
these beds were taken from our waters, and they cost
the planter less than twenty-five cents per bushel, put

down upon his beds. These oysters were taken up
within three or four months, and then sold for more
than eighty cents per bushel.

A method of oyster-planting in artificial ponds has
been highly developed in France, where it is found
to yield an adequate return for the labor and capital
invested, as oysters fattened in this way sell for fifty
per cent more than those from the natural beds. The
method involves considerable labor, and it is doubtful
whether the price of oysters in this country is as yet
high enough to render this industry profitable; but as
our State contains thousands of acres of land which is
at present of no value whatever, while it is perfectly
adapted for the construction of oyster ponds, we shall
give such an account of the French ponds as will enable
any one to experiment in this direction. As our
winter climate is much more severe than that of the
French coast, and the rise and fall of the tide very
slight, some changes in the arrangements of the ponds
will be necessary, but there is no reason why the same
general plan should not be followed here to great advantage,
so soon as the price of oysters increases sufficiently
to warrant the labor. We are indebted to a
French work upon the oyster (Guide Pratique de
l'Ostréiculture et Procédés d'Elevage et de Multiplication
des Races Marines Comestibles, par M. Felix
Fraiche) for the following facts regarding the construction
and management of artificial oyster ponds or
claires:

"For a long time past the breeders of Marennes have
employed, for fattening and perfecting oysters, artificial
basins called claires. The claires are basins of variable

form and extent, but generally with an area of about
two to three hundred square yards. Situated at a
short distance from the sea, and with the waters they
contain at a higher level than the mean height of ordinary
tides, it is only at the period of the spring tides,
or at each new and full moon, that the sea rises to
their level and supplies them anew with water. The
best claires are those which receive water periodically
from the sea, during about three days before and three
days after each highest tide. This period of renewal
for the claires is that which experience has found to
be the best, and it determines the maximum altitude
above the sea for the construction of these reservoirs.

"Around each claire is built a levee or dirt wall,
called a yard, about one yard in height and thickness.
This yard retains the water filling the basin, and upon
it the workmen pass to and fro in inspecting and
working the claire. A floodgate closes a sluice in
one side of the wall, by means of which the sea water
is admitted to the basin. This gate also regulates the
height of the water within the basin, and if desired the
basin can be entirely emptied by opening it wide. All
around the inner circumference of the yard a continuous
trench is dug to receive the mud deposited in the
basin from the stagnant water, for if this mud should
be left in the basin the oysters would soon be smothered.
In order to facilitate the clearing away of the
mud into this ditch a slight slope is given to the bottom
of the basin, circumscribed by the ditch, from the
center towards the borders, so that the surface is
sensibly convex. Some breeders dispense with this
ditch, in which they are probably wrong, for if it does

not prevent the deposit of mud, it at least retards it
and lessens its effect. Its use cannot be judiciously
dispensed with, unless the water has a long distance
to run from the sea and is given a chance to settle
before being admitted to the claire, so as to enable it
to part with the greater share of the mud which it
carries.

"In order to prepare the ground of the claire for
the reception of oysters, it must first be cleared of
stones and all vegetation which may cover it, then the
necessary slope from the center towards the sides may
be given it. The ditch is next dug and the yard
thrown up. Then with the sluiceway made and the
gate in place, the claire is ready to be filled with water
during the first high tide. When the basin is full the
gate is closed and the water retained after the sea has
returned to its ordinary level. The sea water soon
penetrates the soil of the claire, saturating it with salt,
destroying all injurious germs, and transforming it, in
a word, into a marine bottom. As soon as it is supposed
that this effect is produced, the gate is opened
and the surface paved, that is, it is first smoothed
over, and then pounded until it has the even, compact
appearance of a threshing-floor. In about two months
the bottom of the claire will be ready for the reception
of the oyster. The breeders, to supply these claires,
have up to the present time had recourse to oysters
taken directly from the sea, either from banks near
at hand or along the coasts of Brittany, and brought
in bulk in coasting vessels. In order that the products
should be of a good quality and that the regimen of
the claire should have a beneficial influence upon the

oysters contained therein, it is necessary that they
should not be older than from fifteen to eighteen months
or larger than about two inches in diameter. The
breeder culls them, cleans them, chooses the best shaped
ones, and then scatters them with a shovel over the
surface of the basin. Afterwards they are all arranged
by hand, so that nothing shall hinder their development
or interfere with the opening of their valves. In
this manner about 150,000 can be accommodated upon
about two acres of surface. The claire is then filled
with water, which is maintained at a uniform depth of
about a foot. This water, as has already been said, is
renewed only at the spring tides, and at this time the
water in the claires is necessarily very much raised in
level, and consequently the most active supervision is
necessary, for the heavy pressure upon the dikes may
produce breaks or fissures, which it is necessary to
repair immediately or widespread disaster may result.
During cold or hot weather, or sudden changes of
temperature, the breeders maintain the water in the
claires at a higher level than the ordinary, in order
to obviate the destructive action of the frost in winter
or the rapid evaporation and heating of the water in
summer. Nevertheless, the construction of the claire
does not always permit of accident from these causes
being guarded against, and sometimes the result is an
enormous mortality and the ruin of the breeders.
Moreover, the water by remaining in the same basin
necessarily deposits there a certain amount of sediment
which continually accumulates, being added to
at each high tide, and especially during the equinoctial
tides, thus placing the oysters in no slight danger.
To remedy this evil, since it is impossible to prevent
the deposit of mud, the breeders always have certain
unoccupied claires into which they transfer the oysters
from the muddy claires while these are being
cleaned. After a thorough cleansing they are left
empty until it becomes necessary to clean the other
claires, when the oysters are transferred back to their
old quarters. But certain of the breeders, not willing
to allow portions of their land to lie unproductive,
content themselves by cleaning the bottoms and
then replacing the oysters in their old enclosure,
always soiled with mud. It is useless to enumerate
the defects of this practice, which can only produce
inferior results, both as to quality and numbers.

"A claire or live-pond can be established upon any
ground where the altitude above the level of the sea is
sufficient to enable it to be covered by the tide, not
every day, which would expose it to a too frequent
deposit of mud, but at least twice per month, and during
five or six days each time. And as a breeder
should never be content with one claire, however small
his establishment may be, a series of basins can be
made in one or two rows parallel to the coast, along
the surface sloping to the sea, and all having the same
level.

"The soil of the bottom of the claire demands,
according to its nature, different kinds of treatment.
If it is clayey or muddy, it should be cleaned and
leveled, leaving the central portion higher than the
borders, then pounded to give it solidity, and finally
covered with water until the bottom is thoroughly
saturated, when the water can be allowed to run

out, and the bottom once more pounded while it is
is drying. If the bottom is sandy it is necessary to
render it impermeable, so that the water may not leak
out, and also to consolidate it. To accomplish this
the ground is worked over and covered with a layer
of coarse gravel or fragments of shells, upon which is
laid a layer of clay 10 to 12 inches in thickness, which
is then treated as already mentioned for the marly
bottoms. Surrounding the ground thus prepared are
built the dikes which are to retain the water in the
basins. These should be at least six feet in height
above the bottom, so that a depth of water of from
four to five feet can be maintained over the oysters,
not all the time, as generally a depth of from a foot to
eighteen inches is best, but when it is very cold, to
prevent the injurious effects of frosts, and when it is
very warm, to prevent the water becoming too salt
from evaporation. These dikes should be constructed
very solid, so as to resist the great pressure which is
brought to bear upon them at every spring tide, and
should also be covered upon the inside the same as
the bottom, with a layer of clay or hydraulic cement,
so as to prevent all leakage, which is very disastrous
in these basins, since the water is renewed only at
long intervals. The upper portion of the larger of
these dikes should be sufficiently broad and firm to
permit the workmen to traverse it easily and without
danger, for all the necessary manipulations of
working and inspection. If the height of the ground
permits, these claires can be formed by excavating in
the solid earth, in which case it will only be necessary
to cover the slopes of the banks with a layer of stones
set in cement. This system, moreover, will allow of
the utilization of lands slightly above the level of the
tides, so that by uniting the two systems one can
arrange three or even more rows of claires all upon
the same level. To avoid or at least retard the deposit
of mud resulting from the stagnation of the
water, the claire should not receive a new supply of
water from the sea without giving it a chance to deposit
the greater part of its sediment, which can be
accomplished by keeping it for a certain length of
time in a special basin. These basins themselves
might be made of service by providing them with
gates and sluices, and using them as breeding or fattening
ponds for mussels or other marine animals.

"As six months of time at least must elapse after the
young growth have become attached to the collectors
before they can be transported with safety, the two
operations, of constructing claires and gathering the
young, ought to proceed simultaneously. When the
claires are finished, and have a layer of pure and fresh
sea water over the bottom, the oysters which have
been brought upon the collectors should be distributed
as evenly as possible with a shovel, and afterwards
arranged by hand, so that they may not form piles in
certain places and be entirely wanting over other sections.

"During the first three or four years of such an
enterprise one should, in order to procure the young
growth necessary to restock the claires left vacant by
the preceding generation, have recourse, as at first, to
the movable collectors, and bring the young from
some natural bank; but as soon as a generation of

oysters becomes adult, and consequently capable of
reproducing the species, the claires themselves ought
to produce all the young necessary to furnish the
ponds with a constant supply of animals.

"Many times, despite the defective condition of
their claires, the breeders of Marennes have witnessed
their basins, depleted by a widespread mortality, unexpectedly
repeopled from a few oysters which had
survived the disaster, the young developing upon the
shells of the dead oysters. The shells in these cases
acted as collectors to retain the germs which otherwise
would have perished or been carried off by the
first spring tide.

"It is perhaps to be wondered at, and even regretted,
that such facts should not have caused the breeders to
see the immense advantage of making their basins
places of production and growth as well as fattening
establishments. To-day, thanks to the light thrown
upon this question by the researches of M. Coste, the
oyster industry can be raised above the condition in
which it has been kept up to the present time by
routine and indifference, and it may be spread along
our coasts, which have been threatened with misery
and depopulation. The consequences will be an
eminently remunerative industry and a permanent
source of labor, which will attract to our coasts
numerous and robust men, the future hopes of our
naval and commercial marine. A few figures, not
chosen by chance, but selected as a possible minimum,
may serve to prove to my readers that I have
not exaggerated in qualifying the new industry as
highly remunerative, especially when it is called to

mind that the lands upon which it is carried on are
nearly valueless, and unsuited to any other sort of
cultivation.

"The price of a hundred oysters of the Marennes
variety varies from 1½ to 6 francs. Let us then
adopt the price of 3 francs, which is less than a mean,
as the average price per hundred. Upon a square
yard of surface in a claire we can raise from 60 to 80
oysters, and if we take the minimum at 50 it will give
us, upon about 2½ acres, 500,000 oysters, which in
about five years (average time of growth) would be
worth at 3 francs per hundred the sum of at least
15,000 francs, making a yearly revenue of 3000 francs
or $600. In 1863, on the island of Re, a sailor named
Moreau sold the first gathering from his park, which
contained only 500 square meters, for 1300 francs,
making the revenue 26,000 francs per hectare, or
$2180 per acre. Admitting what is evidently above
the truth, that the expense of labor, repairs, supervision,
etc., absorbs three-fifths of this revenue, then
the net profits would be 1200 francs per hectare, or
for the five years 6000 francs or $1200. But these
calculations are based, as will be recognized, upon
mean numbers, which are probably lower than facts
would demand. It will readily be seen, then, that in
five years a landed property of the value of at least
$480 per year to each acre can be established upon
lands which before were unproductive and of no value.
I think it can be said, without danger of exaggeration,
that there are few, if any, rural occupations which in
so short a time will give equal results."

The culture of oysters in the deeper waters of the bay,

and the establishment of new oyster-beds by collecting
the floating spat upon clean shells and other proper
substances, is very much more important than the
encouragement of oyster-planting; but the various
extracts and illustrations which have been given are
surely enough to show the very great advantages
which we should derive from a thorough system of
planting. Deep-water cultivation cannot be undertaken
to advantage on a small scale, and it requires
both capital and expensive appliances; but oyster-planting
can be carried on without any great expense,
and as success in it depends to a great degree upon
constant intelligent supervision, small cultivators will
always have the advantage of those who attempt more
extensive operations.

The most serious obstacle to the development of a
great planting industry in Maryland is the absence of
all respect for private property in oysters. In enclosed
or artificial ponds oysters would be much more safe
from theft than in open water, and as the shores of the
bay abound in suitable spots for the construction of
ponds after the French system, I have given a long
account of the way in which these ponds are made and
managed. Under our present system oysters are often
sacrificed or sold at unremunerative prices, because
there is no way to keep them in good condition until
they can be sold to advantage. A system of ponds
after the French pattern, for the temporary storage of
oysters, would be a very profitable piece of property
in the vicinity of any large center of the packing business,
and the experience of the French planters shows
that the construction of storage ponds where the oysters

may be kept in good order, and where they will
continue to grow and to increase in value, is a very
simple matter.

This industry has also the great advantage that it
does not need legislative protection. It can be put into
practice at once by any one who owns land which is
suitable for the purpose, and our State contains hundreds
of acres of low, marshy land which is now
private property, although it is of little or no value to
its owners. Small streams and inlets which are not
navigable, and which lie within the limits of private
land, may be converted into ponds like the French
claires at very slight expense, and with no more labor
than what is required for ordinary agriculture they
could be made much more profitable than the best
farming land.

The oyster-planting industry in the open water is
also a most important interest, and the attention of
statesmen may well be directed to its development;
for while legislation alone cannot build up a planting
industry, it may do much to prepare the way for it.

In another chapter I shall try to show what our
State can do to encourage oyster culture in general,
but I wish also to say a few words in this place regarding
the encouragement of planting. The most serious
obstacle to the growth of the planting industry in
Maryland is the absence of protection for planted oysters.
They are exposed to the depredations of both
tongmen and dredgers. If the private planting grounds
could be protected from the dredgers, most of the
difficulty would be removed, for the tongmen can be
reached by the local authorities, who will have no

difficulty in keeping them under control as soon as
public sentiment is in favor of so doing.

The restraint of the dredgers within lawful bounds
is a more difficult matter, and if dredging on the public
beds is to be permitted at all, I do not see how planted
oysters can be protected in any way, except by the
formation of a public sentiment in favor of private
cultivation. The difficulty is so great that many
thoughtful persons believe that dredging should be
prohibited, but after much careful examination of the
subject I am not convinced of the propriety of this
measure. If the natural beds are to be retained by
the State, and licenses to gather oysters upon them are
to be issued by the State, the dredge is the proper instrument
to use for the purpose, and the prohibition
of dredging would be a step backward.

Any bed which can be reached by tongmen may be
ruined by unrestricted tonging just as surely as by
dredging, and the statement that the small oysters are
destroyed by the dredge is not supported by my own
observation, while the claim of the dredgers that the
area of the natural beds has been enlarged by dredging
is strictly true. The natural beds have been overtaxed,
and they are in great danger of total ruin, but
no particular set of oystermen are to blame for this.
Most of the oysters have been taken by dredges, because
the dredge is the most efficient instrument for
the purpose, but the exhaustion of our beds is the
result of our bad system and the absence of all effort
to increase our supply by artificial culture. It is not
due to any particular way of catching oysters.

The prohibition of dredging would result in great

hardship to a very great body of our citizens, and if
oystering upon the public beds is permitted at all, I do
not believe that any legislative interference with the
methods which are to be employed would be wise. It
is to the interest of the public that the oysters shall be
taken as economically as possible, and the most effective
implement for the purpose is the best one. The
only way in which public beds can be preserved from
ruin is by the restriction of the crop from each bed to
the amount which it is found, by periodical examination
by an expert, to be capable of yielding without
injury, but the most effective way of gathering this
crop is the best way.

If after examination any natural bed is found to be
so much exhausted that it is no longer fit to yield a
supply of marketable oysters, it should be closed completely
to all fishermen, or else thrown open to all
licensed fishermen for a short time in the summer, to
furnish seed oysters for planting; and the oyster
planters must look for protection in their industry to
the growth of a sentiment of respect for private property
in oysters, like the sentiment in favor of private
agriculture on land. As soon as the community demands
the enforcement of the laws, and juries convict
and punish depredators as if they had trespassed on
private land above water, all the difficulties will disappear,
and I do not believe that there is any other
remedy.

The question to be considered then is this: How
can the people of the State be brought to perceive that
private enterprise in oyster culture is to their advantage,
and what can be done to develop a sentiment of

respect for private property in oysters? This is the
question which should occupy the best thought of
those statesmen who are sincerely devoted to the
welfare of the community, but it is not one which can
be answered by those politicians whose only interest
in the sentiment of the public centers in the use which
they can make of it for their own private ends.

As soon as this object has been attained, and the
planter has become assured that he will be permitted
to enjoy the fruits of his industry, the demand for bottoms
to be used as planting grounds will arise naturally,
and it should be met by more adequate legislative
provisions than our present five-acre law. Riparian
owners should receive from the State the right
to plant oysters upon their own frontage, without any
restrictions, unless this contains natural beds, and
these should be surveyed and definitely described and
set apart by the State. The holders of land for planting
under the five-acre law should also be given a more
secure and permanent tenure. At present they pay
nothing for the right, and as the Legislature may at
any time repeal the law, they have no secure possession.

There would be a much greater incentive to the investment
of labor and capital in oyster-planting if the
planting grounds were made as much like real estate
as possible. The present law permits the sale of
planting grounds, but no person can hold more than
five acres. This limitation has no advantages, and the
owner of ground under this law should be allowed to
sell as freely as he can sell land above water, and a
person who already holds five acres should be permitted
to buy or inherit any other grounds which
have been lawfully leased from the State.

In some States where grounds are held for private
planting, they are taxed, like real estate, and the propriety
of this measure is unquestionable, for the holder
of a valuable franchise should surely pay for the enjoyment
of his advantage. In Maryland, however,
this is a minor consideration, and the fostering of a
prosperous planting industry is vastly more important
to all our citizens than an immediate revenue to the
public treasury.