ARTIFICIAL OYSTER CULTURE. I 07 I 



that by careful and skilful management, aided by suitable 

 means of collecting the spawn of the oyster, all of which is 

 neither difficult nor expensive, one can indefinitely multiply 

 this bivalve, while the processes employed by us at present 

 lead only to the ruin of our naturally excellent beds, (j ) 



Although these Italian breeding grounds are so very 

 old, no extension or development of the industry seems to 

 have been attempted until about fifty years ago, when 

 some unknown fisherman, in the East River, in New York, 

 began practical experiments in this line. The famous 

 French naturalist, Coste, soon after began his investiga- 

 tions and experiments in France, (k) 



The original plan of Coste to line the entire coast of 

 France with a network of oyster-beds has indeed not been 

 carried out ; but in consequence of his exertions and 

 experiments, many oyster-pares have been established in 

 favourable places along the coast, from Normandy to south 

 of the mouth of the river Gironde. The French, favoured 

 with innumerable bays and with a mild sea temperature 

 along their coast, have, by diligence, perseverance, and 

 the invention of new methods, brought oyster-culture to 

 such a high degree of perfection, and given it such wide 

 range, that now, in that favoured land, it is to be reckoned 

 as one of those cultured industries in which man converts 

 to his service vast numbers of plants and animals. The 

 large number of oysters produced, as a result of the French 

 system of oyster-culture, has been held up very often to the 

 inhabitants of the German coasts, in order to incite them 

 to establish in their seas similar places for the artificial 



(/) Guide Pratique de L'Ostreiculteur, par M. Felix Fraiche, 

 translated by H. J. Rice for the Report of the United States Fish 

 Commission for 1880. 



(k) The Development of the Oyster in Maryland, p. 91. 



