The Kanabec County Times

The increase in the consumption of oysters the past twenty-five years has been enormous and consequently there was a probability that the natural supply would become exhausted. As a preventive measure oyster-beds were planted, which have proved so productive that the growing demand is readily supplied. Fortunately the fecundity of the oyster is prodigious and its growth rapid. About two millions of infant oysters only occupy a cubic inch, yet they are ready for market in from two to five years; a sheltered locality is favorable to quick development. The "natives"—as those bivalves are termed which attain maturity in artificial beds—are considered superior to those dredged for in natural breeding grounds.