CULTURE OF OYSTERS. 225 



CHAPTER IX. 



CULTURE OF OYSTERS. 



The Oyster. An hermaphrodite. Its fecundity. Its spawn or 

 "spat," and its manner of incubation. Emission of the spat, and 

 its destruction by marine animals Importance of its finding some- 

 thing to fasten to. Places favorable to its growth. Transportation 

 of seed oysters to the north. Growth of the young oyster. Chief 

 object in the culture of oysters. Oyster Culture at Fusaro. Its 

 antiquity. Its progress in France at the Bay of St. Brieuc and the 

 Island of Ree. English and French oysters. Decrease of oysters 

 in Eastern States. Governor Wise's estimate of the area and 

 value of oyster-beds in Virginia. 



THE oyster being hermaphrodite, reproduces of itself. 

 There are different opinions concerning its fecundity. 

 Some writers state the number of young produced by a 

 single oyster at half a million, others at three millions. As 

 the produce of a large oyster is more numerous than a- 

 small one, either may approximate the truth. 



On the coast of England the embryonic oysters, in mass, 

 are termed " spat." The formation commences in the 

 spring and through all " the months without an R," the 

 spat is maturing or being ejected. This, like other bivalves, 

 incubates its ova or seed within the folds of its mantle and 

 leaflets of its lungs. The seed are contained in the mu- 

 cous substance which we observe when they are in what is 

 called the "milky state." This mass of spawn loses its 



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