OYSTER CULTURE IN GERMANY. 66 1 



These numbers . . . show that it was necessary 

 to lower the price of oysters very soon after the arrival of 

 a large importation into Hamburg harbour, if they were to 

 be disposed of in an eatable condition, and not entirely 

 lost, because there were no adequate means of transporting 

 them into the interior. Such a fall in price guarded the 

 oyster-beds from too destructive fishing. Soon, by means 

 of steamers and railroads, oysters fresh from the beds 

 could be spread far and wide into the country ; then 

 oyster-eaters began to increase in number ; and so, despite 

 the rapid advance in price, the demand for oysters in- 

 creased from year to year. ... A cask of Schleswig- 

 Holstein oysters (700 to 800) was sold, in 1875-' 76, to 

 oyster-dealers, for 105 marks (about $26'25). Fifteen 

 years previous the price was only a third of that sum. 



