Morning journal and courier., 1883-02-02
The Oysters.

The Oyster CommissiOn--Triang
 Natural Oyster Beds-Star Fish Depre-
 dAtfOns
 The shell Fish Commissioners have just made their annual report. It speaks of the hearings had and of the work of triangula- tion, by means or which any oyster bed can be accurately located and defined. This work of triangulation has been substantially con- pleted from the Connecticut river to the New York line. One hundred and eighty two applications for grounds, covering near ly 34, 900 acres. were granted during the year, and 150 more, covering B, 600 acres, are pending.
 This work of the commission is aiding the interest of the oyster-growers, as well as the- interest of the State. A great area-about- 90, 900 acres-is now, or quickly will be, held by cultivaters. It is double the area that was so held two years ago; result chiefly due to fixing and establis hing the bounds, and 1 ending the disputes and confusion as to rights and ownership. Most of this great area has been cleared up. and the ground | (below the seal covered with shells, for oys- l ters to grow upon. One firm alone has laid down 25O, 900 bushels of shells; several 1 other growers have laid down POO, 900 1 bushels.
 The commissioners have been compelled to solve puzzling problem in defining the meaning of the term, "natural beds,'' as dis criminated from cultivated beds. They adopt 8 Maryland decision, that wherever the nat ural growth of oysters is so abundant that the public resort to it for livelihood, it is a 'tnatural bed, :" which cannot be appropriated by an individual
 The law of '81 allows the commissioners to dispose of those natural beds that have be- come exhausted, if the beds have not yielded for ten years. It is hard to decide what beds are barren, and what alleged barren beds are productive; the testimony of witnesses on this, as on the other question of stnaturaI beds, /" was contradictory. The commission CTS desire that the law should be so changed as to reduce the term during which the beds have been unproductive from ten to five years, in order to sell them. (Such beds, it is found can be made productive again. by planting with shells.)
 | The capacity of some of the productive beds can, it is thought, be doubled. "One cultivator alone looks for no less than one million bushels of marketable natives from his own grounds"
 l The ''star fish" inficts great losses upon eystergrowers. "Thousands of bushels of l oysters in one patch have been destroyed in week by the star fish" The report says well known firm recently lost twenty thousand dollars worth of oysters in one bed-ate up by these marauders.. Another firm has in like manner. in ths last two years, lost one hundred thousand dollars worth in the same neighberhood, of Charles Island These creatures seem to move in punches, and when they reach bed they unfold and proceed at ir every direction to eat up the crop The more intel I Egent oystermen claim that with proper dredpinQ these punches may be discovered. and the stsr7fsf caught before they spread out to feed One of the | best informed growers in the State struck an i'm
 mense bunch few days ago while hunting for then on his grounds and in short time gathered in sev enty five 75) bushels of stars By careful NGulini | he prevented the rest from spreading out and st saved his bed, which. he says, would have beer cleaned out in four weeks.
 Tho commissioners think that persons
 owning these lands and planting them witl oysters should be compelled to keep then clear, as much as possible, from all noxious pests. ''Just how this may be done it is mol
 easy at present to show" But, curiouslJ ] enough just at this juncture new discovery has been made. One species of the harmless wild ducks, that sportsmen on the Sound make such war upon, are found to destroy
 the fish. Says the report
 1 The commissioners are credibly informed that tn
 coot (FtttcG GtrG which frequent the waters of tn
 sound in great mum bers feed upon the star-hsh. Al many as twenty small stars have been found in on crop.
 If this fact is confirmed the commission CTS say,a law should be passed forbidding tn,
 shooting of coots. These ducks are 'sfishy' and almost worthless for food.
 And there are other marauders beside : star fish, drum-fish and other denizsns of tn sea these are men-and the law proposed
 by the commissioners makes 1t obligatory l that every oyster vessel shall be distinctl, , numbered, and display it's number while ol the oyster grounds.