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129<br />
Natural oyster beds owe their location to the chances of accident, especially of<br />
tides. Spat is carried to a distance and there deposited. Consequently large<br />
stretches of suitable bottom may be passed over by the mere turns of chance. It is<br />
1hce suitable blank locations that private culture is intended to utilize.<br />
The breeding of oysters artificially is one of the recognized industries of the age.<br />
.Astonishing results have been attained in the hands of private calturists. The capi—<br />
tal required is comparatively small, the time of expectancy is short, and the crop in<br />
three or four years is as sure as anything can be that depends on the elements. I do<br />
not see any necessity for jealousy between the fishers of public beds and private<br />
planters. Such has not arisen in other countries, and there is in reality little room<br />
for a collision of interests.<br />
The revival of the oyster fishery does not offer the same difficulties that are met.<br />
with in other fisheries. It resembles more an agricultural process: the seed is sown<br />
on a prepared soil, the crop is attended to and cultivated when growing, and in four<br />
years the harvest is reaped. The oyster plant is perennial and lives to a great age.<br />
I have before me an oyster shell from Curtain Island, Hulisborough Bay, ten inches<br />
in length and showing over forty annual layers of shell. Once established by artificial<br />
culture the supply might be made practically inexhaustible, inasmuch as oyster<br />
enemies, especially starfish, are comparatively few in these waters. Oysters in<br />
Prince Edward Island are taken only in shallow bays or in the tidal creeks from one<br />
to six fathoms, and such tidal water is not included in land grants, and hence under<br />
the jurisdiction of the Crown. In the present unsettled state of the fishery no one<br />
will risk the planting of private beds, as it is doubtful if either the law or custom<br />
of the country would protect them.<br />
The leasing of areas for private culture would be a check, however imperfect, to<br />
the extinction of nat ural beds from natural causes, for the reason that they woul&<br />
throw off their surplus of free floating spawn and thereby make the natural beds<br />
more likely to be impregnated. The first part of lessees' enterprise in artificial cul.-<br />
ture would be to level the ground and have it paved with materials that would catch<br />
a considerable share of the floating spawn. Were it further made imperative that no<br />
shell.digging be allowed within a given distance of surveyed and officially recognised<br />
beds, the evil would be curtailed as far as it is possible to be. Other advantages to<br />
the public beds from the establishment of private culture will present themselves on<br />
consideration.<br />
In this Province the requirements for successful oyster culture, namely, sheltered<br />
bays and estuaries with sound bottom and the suitable degree of salinity, are every—<br />
where in the three counties, and oysters could be readily plianted. Cardigan Bay,<br />
King's County, and the estuary of Winter River, Queen's County, areespecially well<br />
adapted forplantations. Some few favored localities are as favorable for culture—if<br />
planted with proper seed—as the far-famed English coast of Kent4<br />
In regard to further extending the close season, the following figures may be of<br />
use. Summerside is the main port of shipment, sending away two.thirds of the entire<br />
catch, but from other ports shipments are also made to the markets of St. John, N.B.,<br />
Quebec, Montreal and other places, chiefly in the Upper Provinces. Supposing the<br />
fishermen get to work, from 5th to 15th May, they can meet the spring demand, at a<br />
high price, say 1,0(0 barre's. Epicures would perhaps suffer more than the fishermen<br />
were spring fishing stopped. From 15th September, when the fishery re.opens,<br />
lo 30th September, about 8,000 barrels are shipped. In October, say 13,000; in<br />
November the same, November being the month in which supplies are laid in for'<br />
winter. To cut off November would therefore be inconvenient, commercially. In<br />
December a few hundred barrels will cover shipments. According to appearance,.<br />
the fishery had best be amended by strict regulation during the fishing season, rather<br />
than by shortening the time of fishing. It is, however, a matter for farther<br />
consideration.<br />
Other items present themselves in connection with the public fishing. Such are<br />
more clearly defined duties for the 'Wardens; a definite legal size of oyster; the absolute<br />
prohibition of fishing through the ice; the licensing of oyster boats; 'the selection<br />
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