. Methods and results : report on the oyster beds of the James River, Va. and of Tangier and Pocomoke Sounds, Maryland and Virginia. ssful spatting on thesebeds in 1876; and as the third class represents, on the whole, oysters of the season of 1877 and 1878,and as the ratios between those of that class and those of the second is small, I infer that the seasonsof 1877-78 were bad spawning ones. Again, the fourth class is principally of this years growth,and the ratio of fourth to third class is large, from which I infer—what was the case—that thespatting of the last season on these beds was suc
. Methods and results : report on the oyster beds of the James River, Va. and of Tangier and Pocomoke Sounds, Maryland and Virginia. ssful spatting on thesebeds in 1876; and as the third class represents, on the whole, oysters of the season of 1877 and 1878,and as the ratios between those of that class and those of the second is small, I infer that the seasonsof 1877-78 were bad spawning ones. Again, the fourth class is principally of this years growth,and the ratio of fourth to third class is large, from which I infer—what was the case—that thespatting of the last season on these beds was successful. As already explained, the third and fourth classes practically represent the offspring of threesuccessive spatting seasons, and thus contain the young growth on the bed, while the first andsecond classes represent the mature oysters. If, then, we compare the mature with the 3roung, wehave at once a sure indication of the state of the bed so far as its fecundity is concerned. In order that the areas under consideration might be as similar as~ possible to the extensive No 41 Coast and Geodetic Survey Beport of ADULT OYSTER-NATURAL SIZEFrom. Bird. Bed, PocoTTLOlce Sou=n_a. 61 beds inside the Sounds, I have only used for the following table the largest three sections—Nos. 1,2, and 4: Table II.—Dredging results—Chesapeake Bay. CD Locality. Oyst ers. <D O First andsecondclasses. Third andfourthclasses. Ratios. 1 2,640 719 4,576 3,824 765 7,979 2 4 7,935 12, 568 Accepting this mean ratio of all young growth to mature oysters, upon comparativelyunworked beds, as the standard, it is inferred that the ratio on any bed should not fall below FECUNDITY OF THE BEDS IN THE SOUNDS. In order to ascertain whether the fecundity of the beds in the Sounds was the same as that ofthose outside in the bay, a very thorough dredging was continued during .the summer and autumn,and the oysters classified accordin
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