OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 285 



time to smother the infant mollusk and arrest the flow of water through 

 its tiny gills, thus producing death by asphyxia. 



THE FOOD OF YOUNG OYSTERS. 



This slime I have determined, during the previous seasons, to be largely 

 composed of the very lowest vegetable organisms, namely, bacteria, or 

 those plants constantly associated with putrefactive processes, and even 

 accused of being the proximate or remote causes of contagious and in- 

 fectious diseases in man and the lower animals. 



Any one, however, who has carefully studied the feeding habits of 

 the young oyster is soon convinced that it is upon these very low and 

 minute forms that the animal largely depends for food. In fact, it is 

 possible to frequently fiud young oysters in the stomachs of which mul- 

 titudes of these minute plants are rotating under the impulse of the 

 vibratile cilia with which the stomach is lined, the stomach itself being 

 a cavity not over the one four-thousandth of an inch in diameter, which 

 will give some idea of the minuteness of the food required to nourish so 

 tiny a creature. 



It appears that in practice it will be impossible for us ever to pro- 

 vide against the generation of minute organisms which form the slimy 

 coating of fixed objects used as collectors in the water. But from the 

 foregoing considerations it would appear that the removal of the slime, 

 or the prevention of its deposit, is not altogether desirable, in view of 

 the fact that the minute plants comprising a large part of it form au 

 important element in the development of the young, serving, as we have 

 seen, to nourish it during its infant life. 



UTILITY OF THE EXPERIMENT. 



The practical utility of the experiment, in the writer's estimation, 

 consists in this, that it proves that ponds or inclosed areas of water 

 may be readily utilized on the eastern coast of the United States for cul- 

 tivating oysters in the same way as is practiced in France and other for- 

 eign countries. In fact there are many thousands of acres of salt marsh 

 all along the eastern coasts of the States of Virginia, Maryland, Dela- 

 ware, New Jersey, and perhaps New York, and Chesapeake, Delaware, 

 and Chincoteague Bays, wTiich could be readily converted into per- 

 manent and profitable planting grounds for the cultivation of oysters. 



The great advantage of this method would be that the persons, con- 

 structing the inclosures or digging out ponds on their own territory, 

 would be absolutely protected by law from the incursions of the lawless 

 tongers whose rights and privileges are not yet as clearly defined in 

 some of the States as they should be. The method would also be of 

 advantage from the fact that inclosed areas properly constructed are 

 more accessible — in fact, could be so arranged as to be worked without 

 the use of boats. It would also be found that oysters would fatten and 

 come into condition for market at a relatively much earlier time in the 



