Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1908-11-13
FISH NDOYSTER NOTES.

ieocomlco this season. Mr.. N q
Oakley & Bios, who planted 30. OOo
bushels or shells here last spring. have
just thoroughly examined them and
were unable to even find one oyster
that had caught on them.
The simplest form of oyster culture
Is the preservation Of the natural beds.
This goes far ahead of any artificial
breeding of the oyster. Incubato,
chickens may be more numerous. bu,
they are not so good as the regular hen.
raised chicks. Artificial oysters are
like other artificial things-more mr.,
than nature. Let the culturist replen
ish the natural rock and get the natura
oyster. The Oystermap.
| lFRoh NORFOLK LANDMARK. OCTOBER 3lJ
The outlook for the dredgers is unu.
sually gloomy according to a statement
made last night by Captain B. G. Dog.
gett, of the Oyster Navy Police Boat
Commodore Maury. Captain Doggett
reached Norfolk yesterday from an ex.
tended cruise in the Potomac river
where the dredging season opened two
weeks ago, and he talked very pointedly
on the situation as it exists TODAY in
that vicinity. There are more Vir-
GINA and Maryland boats on the Poto-
mac river today than there have been
for number of years." said CAPTAIN
Doggett. Although the oysters are
IN rather poor condition they are
more plentiful in some localities than
Tor many years past, but because of
the depressed market the outlook is
certainly gloomy for the dredgers. Ger
tain 1t Is that there is no dearth of
1 oysters in Virginia, for the dredgers on
the Potomac are receiving only twenty
ana twenty-five cents a bushel for their
stock, which many of them have to
take to Maryland to find a market AZ
these prices. So slack is the market
and the demand by the planters and
shuckers that number of the vessels
rave had their cargoes die. on their
hands before sale could be made. Ovs-
ter planters from the Eastern Shore
and the Rappahannock and officials who
nave just cruised the Potomac are
united in saying that there are twice
as many oysters on the market TODAY
as there is demand by the planters.
Notwithstanding the large supply of
oysters throughout Tidewater Virginia
the outlook is gloomy because of the
exceeding low priees-the lowest for
years. The middle man has not come
down any in his prices, but shocking
houses are getting about eighty-five
cents gallon this year as compared
with S1.10 last year. In my mind the
depressed condition of the oyster mar
ket is in keeping with the market as
regards other products generally"
THE POTOMAC SITUATION.
The stint of nature and the low
markets by man Republican prosper
ity'O have pretty nearly paralyzed the
Potomac workers. 1.-THE Oysterman"
has this squib about the upper seed
beds:
The freshets have played havoc
with the oysters of the Potomac. The
tongers report that they are all dead
and have left those waters in disgust. {"
THE OYSTER PROBLEM.
DANvILLE REcIsrER)
The Richmond Times-Dispatch is very
much perturbed over what it charac-
terizes as the rapid extinction of the
oyster industry in Virginia, and is dis
cussing the subject as it sees it and.
presumably to the best of its knowledge
and belief, in series of editorials on
the subject. The editor of the T-D-ium
is familiar with oysters on the half
shell at his club, and with those in the
soup, and he has probably eaten them
when prepared in other forms, but in
presuming to know the facts relative
to the condition Of the oyster industry
and the causes of the alleged conditions
and the most effective remedy therefor.
he is laying claim to a knowledge which
few men who have spent their lives
clustering would dare profess. (.
The inconsistent point about our con-
temporary's contention is that it mani
tests so much solicitude about the poor.
! starving tongers who can find no oys-
tiers, and yet proposes to make condi-
tons worse for them by further limit
ing the area from which they may law
fully take oysters. AS we apprehend
Its position, it favors contracting the
Baylor survey and eliminating there
from what is not deemed productive
bottom, the inevitable effect of which
will be to limit the area from which
tongers may take oysters. The fact is
also overlooked that these poor starv-
ing tongers. for whom so much sympa-
thy is expressed, are themselves chiefly
responsible for the conditions said to
exist, If they do actually exist. Who
destroys the seed oyster and spat dur
ing the closed season, if not the longer?
Does the planter poach on the public
bottoms during the closed season to get
his seed oysters? That is not even
alleged. Our contemporary charges
that the State Fisheries Commission
has not been successful in protecting
the seed oysters against the depreda-
tons OF the tongers who invade the
public bottoms during the closed season.
and 1t accuses the Commission of re-
sponsibility for the alleged expense to
which tongers have been subjected in