OCR Text |
Show RETURNS FROM OYSTER BEDS Tho latest report of the state shellfish shell-fish commission contains some revelations reve-lations of tho practical woiklng of tho oyster bottoms lcnslng law, passed pas-sed In 1900, which are enlightening, If not very encouraging. Under this law the shellfish commission was created and a comprehensive survey of thd loostcr hinds, productive and non-productive, us piovldcd for. This sur- ' vey has now been practically completed, com-pleted, and in the report Jua,t issued the commission declares that there aie now 300,000 acres of bottom available for leasing under tho law which can be mado valuable by art!- 1 flclal development, nnd that 100,000' acres of theso lands arc so situated 1 and constituted that, by tho applied j Hon of modem methods of oyster culture, cul-ture, they can be mado as highly productive pro-ductive as tho bottoms reserved rs natural yielding nrcas. This statement state-ment Is qulto moderate and is doubtless doubt-less well within tho bounds of truth concerning the extent nnd productive possibility of the oyster lands available avail-able for leasing. Tho opportunity awaits, but tho report shows that oyster oys-ter culture under tho ilaman law has not developed; has, In fact, retrograded. retrograd-ed. It Is shown that for the year which ended with September, 190.1, tho rental receipts from leased bottoms bot-toms nmountcd to $3,568,G0, and that for the year ending with Septombcr 1910 the last year covered In tho reportthe re-portthe rentals had dropped to $1,571.54. The leasing system so far has cost annually moro than it has como to, The total receipts, under tho new oyster law for tho fiscal year 1909, were $4,178.80, and the lo-tal lo-tal cost of the system was for that year $33,485.82, and the total receipts re-ceipts for 1910 were $1,79G.51. as against n total cost of maintenance nt $31,140. The report upon the whole leads to ono of two conclusions. Either the state should abandon all pretense of operating a leasing system or else It should provide n leasing lnw so amended that It will encourage and not discourage the enlistment of private pri-vate enterprise In oyster farming. What tho leasing results nre nt the close of tho fiscnl years ending with September 1911, Is not shown, but at tho end of September, 1910, only 2,733 acres of tho 300,000 valuable bottoms offered for years werelcaser. As indicated in-dicated by the rcntnl receipts, there was n marked 'decrease In the acreage acre-age leased in 1909. . - |