BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 337 



so many honest people who, thanks to this mollusk, feel, perhaps for 

 the first time in a long while, that their condition has improved? 



Is it necessary to reduce the unproductive lands which they have 

 converted into fertile parks to their primitive sterility? Is it necessary 

 to arrest that progress which seems destined to bring oyster culture 

 into favor on those parts of the French coasts where it is not yet devel- 

 oped? And, from the point of view of political economy, would it not 

 be most unreasonable to interfere with the production of a food-supply, 

 under co^er of the singular pretext that it interfered with and ruined 

 the sale of a more delicate rival ? Do we need to defend the harvesting 

 of rye because wheat is better? Yes, it has been said that the Portu- 

 guese oyster was very much inferior to its rival in respect to flavor. 

 This is possible, but this is a point to be decided by the consumer. 

 The administration should have no preference, nor be orthodox in the 

 matter of the flavor of oysters. 



Do they not tell us that Americans have not the proper delicacy of 

 taste because they relish the oyster of Virginia, which these persons 

 would esteem but little more than Ostrea angulata ? But it is not only 

 in America that that species is relished, but all over Europe; in France, 

 in England, and in the whole of Northern Germany, where it is brought 

 both in the fresh state and canned. 



We have no fears regarding the propagation of the Portuguese oyster 

 in our waters, because, seeing the facility with which it is reared and 

 its rapid growth, it occupies an important place as a food product, in 

 consequence of which it will always find a ready market. If our ostra- 

 cultural establishments would but produce a much larger quantity they 

 might be exported in lieu of the American oyster, with the additional 

 advantage that they would be fattened in the parks before they were 

 taken to market. But in the present state of the industry we are not 

 able to supply the demands of home consumption. Each year, vessels 

 go in search of cargoes of them in the Tagus j but, in spite of this, they 

 have great difficulty in obtaining them for our ostracultural stations, so 

 that the important dealers in common or flat oysters, in view of this 

 condition of things, have not agreed to supply more than a certain per- 

 centage of Portuguese oysters. 



We are conscious, moreover, that the detractors of this species are 

 becoming less numerous; that, as the culture of this mollusk tends to 

 become general and cultivators devote themselves to it, they will not 

 be of those who will realize the least of its benefits. Here, then, the 

 new method is unfolded. We should not forget that we now occupy 

 the first place in Europe as regards oyster culture; we should not 

 neglect maintaining it. 



In conclusion, it remains my duty to express my thanks to the func- 

 tionaries of the marine for the enlightened and hearty assistance they 

 have rendered me at all times, especially M. de Choisy, chief of the 

 service at Bordeaux, and MM. Jouau, commissary at Pauillac; l'Hopital, 

 Bull. U. S. F. 0., 82 22 April 25, 1883. 



