Morning journal and courier., 1881-10-29
Saturday Morning, Oct. a9, 1881.
MUST THE AMERICAN OYSTER DIE

MUST THE AMERICAN OYSTER DIE ]. Lieutenant Francis Winslow of the United States coast survey has an article in the Popular Science Monthly for November in
 which he sounds note of warning to those interested in maintaining an adequate supply of American oysters. He declares that the natural oyster beds of the North are prac- tically exhausted, and that there is no doubt of the greatly diminished production of the southern beds-that is, those of Maryland and Virginia. In support of his conclusions he cites the condition of the oyster beds of Tangier and Pocomoke Sounds, two arms of were located and defined during the summer of 1878, and the area upon which oysters were scattered was also ascertained approxi- mately. The entire area in both sounds up
 on which oysters were found amounts to
 ffty-four square miles. The area covered by
 oysters, but only very thinly, they being
 scattered in small groups CT singly, con-
 prises in Tangier Sound fourteen square
 miles, and iR Pocomoke Sound twenty nine
 square miles. The area of the beds proper,
 on those grounds where the oysters are to
 great extent uniformly spread and where the
 majority of the dredging vessels work,
 amounts to six square miles in Tangier
 Sound and to four square miles in Pocomoke
 Sound. The information obtained in 1878,
 far as it related to the condition of the
 beds, may be summarized as follows: The
 number of oysters on the beds had been very
 much diminished since the commencement of
 the fishery, or during the last thirty years.
 The area of the beds had been greatly in- creased since the commencement of the fish cry. There had been during the period al luded to no change of the usual natural con- ditions to which the animals are subjected. The agency of man is therefore to be held responsible for the deterioration of the beds. Tests made show that the present method of working the beds by dredges is exceedingly wasteful and exhausting.
 Lieutenant Winslow gives some striking instances of the disastrous results of the overworking of oyster beds off the coasts of France and England. The records of the production of the beds of Cancale Bay, on the northwest coast of France, which extend over a period of sixty-eight years, from 1900 to 1868, are perhaps the most instructive. The beds in the bay com prise an area of one hundred and fifty acres and from 1900 to 1916 produced annually ! from 400, 900 to 2,O0O,0Oo oysters. This, | however, was the period of the Napoleonic | wars, and the fishery was much disturbed by 1 the English cruisers. During this time the l beds became so thickly stocked that the oys- ters were in some places yard thick After | the close of the war the fishery improved l and the oysters were removed in large and increasing numbers until 1943.
 From 1923 to 1s4s it is supposed that the dredgers were living upon the animals accu- mulated during the period of enforced rest from 1900 to 1916. In 1877 the number of oysters produced was 5,60O, ,O0O, and until | 1843 there was a constant increase, the num- Der taken that year being 70, GOO, ,oo0. In l 1S4S it was 60,00O,OOO and thenceforward l there was constant decrease. From 1850 to 1856 the decrease was from 5o,oOO,Ooo to 1S, S,O00,O0O, and was supposed to be the eff feet of over-dredging. From 1859 to 1868 the decrease was from 16, 900, 900 to 1,079,- 1 900, the oysters having almost entirely dis l appeared from the beds, though on account of the suffering condition of the inhabitants on the shore it was impossible to prevent it or restrict the fishery In 1870 there was complete wreck of the bottom, which could only be remedied by total prohibition of the fisheries for several years.
 The evil of excessive and wasteful fishery which exists in this country will unquestion- ably have disastrous results if continued, but our oyster beds are so extensive, the animals are so widely distributed and are so easily transported and transplanted that the failure of the American oyster-beds will be post poned for some time, even if no extra efforts are made to preserve and increase them. There has been no decrease of oysters yet noted in the ''stews" furnished at church festivals, etc.