The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-01-02
THE SHELL FIST COMPASSION.

oyster Business Interesting Facts and Figures.
 The shell fish commission in its an- nual report just made shows that the total receipts for the year were $6,- S62,75, total disbursements $5,S45. .9S; bal ance $l,Ol6.S2. The commission will con- fer with the oyster growers in order to formulate a plan for making the work under the oyster police law eff tective. The report adds that with the many chances of losses in the oyster business in deep sea water, the addi- ton Of 50 per cent. to the tax rate or such a business makes heavy charge upon it and the return under the bill ought to be adequate. On the subject of official care of oyster grounds the report says: we think that it is not the duty of the inspector of nat ural oyster beds to watch private grounds, but that the maintenance of their buoys and the guarding of their property, adjacent to the natural oy- ster beds, still falls upon the owners thereof
 Nhe following details of the work show what has been done thus far; BUoYS SET ON NATURAL OYSTER
 BEDS.
 November F, 1894, 36 buoys were set on the Stratford and Bridgeport beds; May "A, 1895, IS buoys, on the Stratford and Bridgeport beds; May 25, 1895, 46 buoys, on the Stratford and Bridgeport beds; June 7, 1895, buoys, on the Stratford and Bridgeport beds; June (, 1895, 20 buoys, on the Fairfield bed; September 9, 1895, IA buoys, on Stratford and Bridgeport beds; October 16, 1895, 20 buoys, on the Fish Island and Roton Point beds; October F, 1895, 20 buoys, on the Stratford and Bridge port beds. Making a total of POS buoys set for the year. To buoy the beds once would require as follows: To buoy Stratford and Bridgeport beds, 70 buoys; to buoy Fairfield and Fairfield Bar, 30 buoys; to buoy Fish Island and Roton Point, 95 buoys. Total, 135.
 The oystermen who keep their grounds well buoyed, count on setting huoys up twice year, if not in the
 
 in the Stratford and Bridgeport beds and part of Roton Point and Fish Isl and, Fairfield and Fairfield Bar have no trouble, as a rule.
 Parts of the Stratford and Bridge port beds have been buoyed up, one dy, and the following day from tc 12 buoys have been broken off by steamers and tug boats. It has been suggested that the state use bette, and larger buoys. Better buoys would not last any longer, and for size, the United States government has limited the size. We would not recommend the state to experiment. with buoys. Some of our very best oyster growers have been experimenting for years and have settled down to the same kind as those the state has used since it commenced to buoy the natural oyster beds
 YOUNG OYSTERS FROM NATURAL 5s7s M BEDS.
 sTrhe catch of young oysters from the natural beds that have been buoy. ed by the state for the last year reaches about 1, 100, 900 bushels, and there is fail prospect for a large catch in the spring
 
 tom is so firm and we'll set that at this late season of the year, it would re quire an unusually hard storm to in jure the young oysters, which are vel budded into the sand. The three nat ural beds have given employment or an average to 200 boats with an average of three men to a boat for three months in the fall and winter.
 While the members of the commits sion might deem it compliment tt their fairness and impartiality that they were thought competent to prop crly review their own assessments, ye the theoretical inconsistency of the dua duty leads them to wish that some other body had been assigned to the one function or the other. They do not de sire to shirk the labor, but they would prefer to bring to the duties of board of review minds free from any preju .~. dice. however unconscious, inseparablt from previous knowledge and consid eration of the cases before them.
 LANDMARKS.
 During the past year the commis sioners have replaced several importan landmarks in a permanent and substan tial manner. The value of these land marks to the oystermen is great, ant the state makes no more judiciOus in yestment for the benefit of the busi ness than in these, when they are right ly constructed and properly attended to. In this connection the commission CTS would suggest that could the nat uraI beds be permanently monumentet on shore so that ranges could be easil. secured the labor and cost of keepin. them properly would be greatly re duced This would entail considerabl expense at first, but it would be com pensated by subsequent results.
 DANBURY FAIR.
 Previous to the opening of the grea Columbia exposition at Chicago ther was meeting in that city of the fisl commissioners of all the states in tn JJrion, and the shell fish commission o Connecticut was represented there b, one of it's members A small collection of articles, representing the oyster in dustry. was gotten together by D. Sanford for the commission, and take to the meeting. It awakened a pro found interest, and the commission heard from it repeatedly. Believing that a somewhat similar meeting migh
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