98 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



BRANCHES OF OYSTEll-CULTUEE. 



Oyster-culture compreheuds two very distinct branches ; on the one 

 hand, production; on the other, raising and fattening. 



The production is the gathering of the embryos of the oysters, and 

 the saving thus of a great number, the loss of which would be inevita- 

 ble without the intervention of man. 



Every one knows that at the time when it is born the young oysttr 

 is furnished with locomotive apparatus by which it is enabled to swim 

 in the bosom of the sea. After having wandered a certain time the 

 animal fixes itself on some extraneous body, loses forever its organs 

 of locomotion, and becomes tlie mollusk well-known to all. But these 

 embryos cannot fix themselves indifferently upon any substance which 

 comes within their reach. It is necessary for the latter to be sufficiently 

 smooth and clean. So it happens, in the natural condition of things, 

 that a great quantity of these little beings, this naissain,* find no ob- 

 jects to which they can adhere, fall on the bottom of the sea, and soon 

 perisli. At last, those which have been able to fix themselves under 

 favorable conditions find themselves exposed for a long time to many 

 dangers. It is to obviate these perils that oyster-culturists place in the 

 vicinity of natural beds various objects, designated under the name of 

 collectors, destined to gather and preserve the spat. When the latter 

 has attained a sufficient develoxjment, it is detached and delivered to 

 the raiser. 



The raising consists in supplying to the spat the conditions best calcu- 

 lated to promote its rapid growth, and, at the same time, sheltering it 

 as much as possible from the attacks of its natural enemies. 



Next, they proceed to the fattening; that is to say, they exert them- 

 selves to give to the animal tliat physical condition which makes it 

 sought after by the epicures. 



Centers of production. — It remains for me to consider vsucces- 

 sively the most important centers of production and raising. The two 

 points in France where i)roduction is carried on upon a large scale are, 

 first, Arcachou ; second, the Morbihau. 



ARCACHON BAY. 



In 1853 the oyster-cultural industry did not exist in Arcachon Bay. 

 At that period, in fact, one of our most distinguished pisciculturists, 

 M. Ohabofc Karleu, i)ublished a report on this jjart of France, in which 

 one may read that the x)roduction of oysters was then absolutely neg- 



* The term naissain applied to oysters during all the earlier stages of their existence 

 is of frequent occurreuce iu French oyster-cultural literature, and is used many times 

 in the course of the present article. "When the mollusks are referred to in their pelagic 

 or free condition vaissain y^Wl bo found to have been translated " fry " or " spawn," 

 "whUe in those instances in which they are spolcen of after fixation, the word has been 

 uniformly rendered into "spat," familiar words iu the American oyster-dialect, and 

 less ambiguous than any others. — Translator, 



