1208 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



The number of young produced by each oyster has 

 been variously stated to be between 300,000 and 60,000,000, 

 but the approximation made by Mr. Eyton of 1,800,000, 

 was probably a pretty correct estimate of the total number 

 of young English oysters contained by the parent. 



American oysters are said to be more prolific, the fish 

 and its ovaries being larger, whilst its eggs are less than 

 one third as large. Mr. Coleman, of Whitstable, estimated 

 that an American Blue Point could produce 125,000,000 if 

 there was no loss of space, based on the calculation that a 

 single ripe egg measures about one five-hundredth of an 

 inch in diameter. 



The conditions requisite for breeding are 



1. Clean collectors. 



2. Heat and tranquillity. 



CLEAN COLLECTORS. 



If the collectors are not clean, the spat cannot adhere; 

 we have therefore placed this condition first. 



It has been known for some time that culch should be 

 clean, but the primary requirement of clean collectors and 

 grounds has not been generally recognised, nor has the fact 

 that the cleaner the collectors the greater the number of 

 oysters they catch. 



At an oyster breeding establishment, Dr. Soubenan 

 observed the following, what he called " curious," fact, but 

 he did not point the moral of his tale. It ran thus : 



In consequence of a rupture in the sluice, the water in 

 a basin where oysters had been placed to spat escaped into 

 a neighbouring basin which was in preparation, but in 

 which there was not a single oyster of any kind. All the 

 stones of this basin were subsequently found covered with 

 spat which had been brought in by the water, and the rails 



