Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1891-03-21
.OUR OYSTER CROP
viii Soon BE Inadequate Unless
Something is Done
To Prevent the determination
of the Chesapeake Beds.

The Methods of Artificial Culture as
Practicod Elsewhere Suggested--Con-
necticut's output Increased Four Fold
in Ten Years-Yields Splendid Profits
If Worked Properly.
WASHINGTON, March 2l.-The great
mass meeting in Baltimore to devise
means for the protection of the oyster
beds, now fast becoming exhausted, at
tracted general attention.
Mr. Richard Bathbun, of the fish
commission, says:
The oyster men are beginning to see
that the wholesale gathering of oysters
cannot go on indefinitely as things are
now. 1t is possible with tongs and
dredges for them to take every oyster
out of bed and leave the bottom bare.
| And that is just what they have been
doing. In Maryland any citizen of the
state may work the beds as much as he
wishes, and the result is becoming
very evident in the scarcity of the oys-
ter.
The whole coast of the J'rited
States is adapted for the cultivation of
the oyster, from Massachusetts, to
north for them. but along Connecticut
they thrive splendidly, though it is i'll
the Chesapeake waters that they come
to their very best, Further south they
have the cool oysters that grow be
tween the tide levels. On account of
the mild temperature they can live out
of water during the low tide These
oysters are long and thin, and do not
grow as large or fat as the Chesapeake
oysters. In North Carolina, South
Carolina and Georgia they have begun
the system of state supervision of oys-
ter beds, and it is found to work splen-
didly.
1T is in Connecticut however. that
this system is most fully carried into
effect There the natural oyster beds
along the shores are reserved for public
use, but out beyond that, where the
bottom is suited to cultivation, it is
plated off and sold to the oystermen,
and title given the same as property
on land, This ownership is transmitta.
bic, and in many cases is very valu-
BILE. The owner has full control over
this water, and he can plant his oysters
and cultivate them without any fear
that someone else will reap the profits.
His rights are respected, and it is to his
interest to keep his beds from being de-
stroyed. The oysters are caught in their
natural beds and he buys the seed oys
ters and plants them, and then lets
them grow in peace to a marketable
maturity. This is a very profitable
business, and there is not a more pros
porous set of men in the state than those
who engage in it, To show you how
well the system works | can tell you
that the oyster crop in Connecticut has
increased four times in the past ten
wears, while in the Chesapeake it has
decreased considerably more than a half
in the same period Something of this
sort must be done in the Che apeake or
the oyster will soon be exterminated
The oyster business in all its branches
has always been one Of the most profit
able industries in Maryland but the
end is in sight if the present methods
continue.
"Still even the system followed in
Connecticut is crude one, and is hardly
culture at all, properly sleaking. In
Europe now the oyster is hatched and
nurtured artificially, Espec ally is this
the case in France, where the business
is largely carried On and pays we'll, for
the oyster is an expensive luxury there,
but no more so than it promises to be
over mere very soon, w nat we are
really coming to is artificial production
in ponds along the shore that can be
flooded by means of inlets and canals,
in addition to the natural oyster beds
The fish commission is making a special
study of this matter now, and will soon
have something definite to say about it,
Artificial culture can be made to pay
spiendidy, and there is no business that
offers better inducements than the oyster
business it it is but wisely and judicious-
ly followed. There is plenty of hard
work, of course, but there are large re-
turns TO be had as well, and the time is
will be utterly Inadequate for the ordi-
nary demand,