ARTIFICIAL OYSTER CULTURE. 1073 



England Oyster Company, organized in 1865 with a capital 

 of ^"50,000. Inside of a dike upon the west side of the 

 island five oyster-beds were prepared, having an extent of 

 sea-bottom of about 32 hectares (about 80 acres). May 1 1 

 and 12, 1869, when I visited these beds, several of them 

 had not been overflowed. The natural bottom, which was 

 a sticky mud, had been covered with gravel and mussel- 

 shells, and upon the largest bed hurdles, each 2-4 meters 

 long by 75 centimeters broad, and composed of birch 

 twigs, had been placed so as to rest horizontally at about 

 one-half a meter above the ground. Besides these hurdles, 

 laths, with oyster-shells and bundles of small rods nailed 

 to them, were stuck about over the ground, so that there 

 should be plenty of objects of attachment for the young 

 ovsters. The inward and outward flow of the water \vas 



J 



regulated by means of a sluice and gate. The mother 

 oysters are generally placed in the beds just before the 

 breeding season. 



In 1869 they expected to place upon the beds 50,000 

 breeding oysters. The water is generally changed every 

 day, except during the winter months, when there would 

 be danger of freezing the oysters, and also except during 

 the swarming period, when the young would be liable to 

 escape into the sea with the changing water. In 1867, 

 600,000 mature deep-sea oysters were placed on an oyster- 

 bed, which covered a surface of 7*3 hectares, and over 

 which 10,000 hurdles \vere placed as objects of attach- 

 ment. Upon an average over 12,000 young oysters were 

 found attached to each hurdle, making for all the hurdles 

 a total of more than 120,000,000. In these and other 

 experiments at artificial oyster-breeding in England, all 

 the experiences of French oyster-breeders were made use 

 of as far as possible ; but notwithstanding this, at no 



