59 



thereby, it is worth while to carry out this system for the 

 financial consideration. In practice the plumping may be ac- 

 complished at the time when the oysters are taken from the 

 growing beds and rebedded to become cleaned from the mud 

 within the shells. 



A true fattening process, that is an increasing of the fat- 

 ness of the oysters by supplying an abundance of food material^ 

 has been long practiced in Europe where the most of the cul- 

 ture takes place in enclosed ponds. In this country sucm a 

 method has been considered too expensive to be justified in 

 general practice. During the last few years, however, experi- 

 ments have been carried on by the United States Bureau of 

 Fisheries at Lynnhaven, Va., to discover some method of fatten- 

 ing oysters which could be practiced on a commercial scale un- 

 der the restrictions imposed by the comparatively low price 

 of oysters in this country. In these experiments the amount of 

 food in the fattening ponds has been increased by the applica- 

 tion of ordinary commercial fertilizeres some time before the 

 beginning of the oyster season, so that there would be an aiaan- 

 dance of the diatoms before the first oysters were put in the 

 ponds. The water in the ponds was confined so that none of 

 the food material could escape, while the currents, to cause the 

 necessary distribution of the food^ were maintained by the use 

 of a "screw propeller" installed in one of the narrow canals 

 between the ponds. The oysters were put in cages suspended 

 in the ponds and allowed to remain some time. The improve- 

 ment in the oysters fattened by this method, was so great that 

 they commanded a much higher price in the markets of New 

 York and Philadelphia than those taken from the reefs or beds 

 and sold without having undergone the fattening proce^js. There 

 are as yet certain difficulties to be overcome in the matter of 

 controlling the character of the organisms which will de\Tlop 

 under the artificial conditions, as well as in the mechani'^al con- 

 struction and arrangement of the systems of ponds. So that np 

 to the present time the system has not been developed to a 

 point where its commercial possibilities are assured. 



