ARTIFICIAL OYSTER CULTURE. 1105 



I have not the pleasure of knowing Mr. Vernon 

 Cochrane, but I think that a man who can spend eight 

 years in perfecting the taste of an oyster is deserving not 

 only of commercial success, but also of the respect and 

 praise of every oyster culturist at home or abroad. He is 

 certainly one of the self-deciding class of society of which 

 it were well there were a more plentiful sprinkling among 

 " all sorts and conditions of men." 



So, then, the Climatic Theory fails even with regard 

 to Ireland. 



Well, we must end this matter, resume the broken 

 thread of our discourse, and endeavour to find out the 

 cause of failure in the marketable qualities of the oysters 

 reared from the fall of spat both in Breneguy-en-Locma- 

 riaquer and Hayling Island. 



To produce a healthy and resistive progeniture, an 

 oyster must be itself as vigorous and healthy as possible. 

 If an oyster be grown up in an enclosure, let it be large 

 and in communication with the ocean in the usual way : it 

 is evidently very difficult, if not impossible, that this oyster 

 should be of the same strength and health as those which 

 are placed in the open ocean. The two reasons which 

 must necessarily bring about this difference are : in the first 

 place, that the aeration of the water (its oxygenium-quantity) 

 is not sufficient, and in the second place, that there cannot 

 be abundance of food within an enclosure. No doubt the 

 changing of the water can to a certain extent make up for 

 this disadvantage ; but there is sure to remain a very 

 notable difference in strength between the oysters grown 

 up within such an oyster-tank and those found in the open 

 ocean. 



And this difference will in the first place affect their 

 reproductive power ; a smaller percentage of those oysters 



