11 



at any time will show ^reat numbers of immature eggs, most 

 of these being ova which will ripen and be discharged during 

 some subsequent year. Other changes, which it is not necessary 

 to mention here, take place in the eggs and tissues, but the ulti- 

 mate result is that the ovarj^ becomes enlarged by the growth 

 of the ripening eggs and the latter pass into the oviducts which 

 stand out as milkj^-white and much-branched vessels on each 

 side of the body. 



The spermatozoa develop in much the same manner, but the 

 generative cells, instead of developing into ei^^s, undergo rapid 

 divisions, each into a number of minute, active bodies, which 

 pass into the sperm ducts and gorge them with a white fluid, the 

 milt, in general naked eye appearance resembling the ovarian 

 fluid. 



SPAWNING. 



The act of spawning consists in the discharge of the ripe 

 generative products into the surrounding water, where fertiliza- 

 tion takes place. The season in which the oysters spawn dif- 

 fers very much in different regions, and in the same general 

 region is influenced by local cbnditions. As a general rule, it 

 may be said, that spawning takes place earlier in the South 

 than in the North; and in the same region, in the shallower, 

 than in the deeper water. Apparently the chief cause of this 

 fact is the temperature of the water, which becomes warm in 

 Southern sections earlier than in the north, and in shallow 

 places sooner than in the deeper. 



In Louisiana the spawning soasDu extends from the early 

 part of April to the latter part of September, while sporadic cases 

 of spawning undoubtedly occur in every month of the year. In 

 seasons whi n, for any ro:is()ii. there have lieen conditions which 

 interfered with spawning at the usual time, it has been observed 

 that the breeding season may be changed. After a prolonged 

 spring freshet it is not at all nneommon to find oysters spawning 

 late in the fall. In the season of 1005 the oysters in Calcasieu 

 Pass were spawning abundantly in the early part of October, and 

 in the same year spat were setting very abundantly in the waters 

 <'f Vennilion Parish up to the last of that montli. 



'I'he acre at which oysters become 'capable of spawMin<r varies 



