358 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES ElSH COMMISSION. 



varies in price from 5 to 10 cents, and therefore costs on an average 

 30 German pfeimige. To this are added 2 quarts of milk, at 12 pfen- 

 uigo = 24pfennige, some salt, pepper, &c., and broken crackers to the 

 value of 30 pfennige, and we get a most excellent souj) or stew, enough 

 for four persons (costing about 25 cents). 



The second cause, the easy mode of preparing the oysters, is self-evi- 

 dent, for it takes only about ten minutes to cook such a soup, and this 

 is done simply and cheaply on the small oil-stoves which are so gene- 

 rally used in America. Unmarried laborers find in the common restau- 

 rants, for the trifling sum of five cents, an oyster stew which is sufficient 

 to satisfy their hunger. 



As regards the third point, I can testify from my own experience that 

 an oyster stew prepared in this manner is a most delicious dish, highly 

 relished even in the best circles. 



You are probably acquainted with the fact that in the United States 

 oysters are eaten prepared in many different ways — stewed, roasted, 

 broiled, pickled, &c. — and I am firmly convinced that these various 

 methods of preparing oysters would soon become popular in Germany 

 if oysters would cease to be a mere luxury and be sold cheajily every- 

 where. 



Permit me to embrace this ojiportunity to remind you of another 

 point, and one which awakens in me feelings of chagrin, viz., the fact 

 that more than 6,000,000 marks [$1,428,000] of German money annually 

 goes to foreign countries for oysters imported by us. This financial 

 reason ought to compel us to increase our own oyster-culture, if possible. 



After the necessary beds of 03'ster shells, which form the best founda- 

 tion for oysters, have been i)repared in various places along the coast 

 of the Baltic pointed out as favorable by Professor Mobius, I shall 

 furnish a large quantity of both kinds of Canadian oysters — the long- 

 one {Ostrea canadensis) and the round one {Ostrea edidis) — to be i>lanted 

 in the places iudicated, hoping that they may become the starting- 

 points for the constant and jiermanent spreading of these valuable 

 shell-fish. If we succeed in transplanting oyster-culture to the Baltic, 

 there will be no limit to the fertilitj' and the spreading of tbe oysters, 

 for, according to Brooks, a full-grown oyster produces 9,000,000 eggs. 

 It is to be hoped that the association will finally succeed in developing 

 this small seed-grain to that point to which it has grown in the United 

 States, viz., to furnish a cheap and palatable article of food for the 

 masses. 



On the continent of Europe we are constantly making efforts to ren- 

 der our soil more fertile ; and we should endeavor to do the same not 

 only with regax\l to our rivers and brooks, but also as regards the sea, 

 and, by the experiments to which I have referred, make ourselves inde- 

 pendent of foreign countries as regards the production of oysters. 



Berlin, Germany, Marcli 8, 1884. 



