20 



OYSTER CULTURE EXPERIMENTS IN LOUISIANA. 



broken oyster shells may prove advantageous, and it may prove 

 good policy to cull the oysters at the end of the first eight or ten 

 months so as to permit them to grow to good shape. At present this 

 is unnecessary. In many cases the shells and debris culled off, if 

 taken ashore and weathered, would suffice for planting other areas. 

 The rate of growth of oysters attaching to oyster shells was more 

 rapid than of those striking on clams, probably because they were 

 raised higher above the bottom and therefore more favorably situated 

 for obtaining a supply of food. This fact and the average sizes 

 attained by the oysters at different ages are shown in the following 

 table : 



Avebagp: Length of Oysters Attached to Planted Shells at Different 

 Ages (One to Thirty-three Months). 



This table assumes the ages of the oysters to date from the time of 

 planting the shells, but as the strike is ordinarily distributed over 

 several months, the ages, excepting of the youngest, are somewhat 

 overestimated. It will be observed that at the end of the first year 

 the planted oyster shells bore oysters, whose average size was some- 

 \\liat above the minimum market limit, and many of them were be- 

 tween 3 and 3^ inches long. At 2 years of age they were between 3 

 and 4 inches long and averaged 3| inches, while in less than three 

 years from the date of planting all of them were between 3| and 5 

 inches long and averaged about 4 inches. These oysters were all of 

 fine shape, with rather heavy clean shells, and in small clusters or 

 single, requiring very little culling to fit them for market. Those 

 raised on clam shells, though of smaller size, were of particularly 

 fine shape and all single. At an age of 33 months they ran from 500 

 to 525 oysters to the barrel of 3^ bushels, while those grown on oyster 

 shells rated between 425 and 450. 



During most of the period of the experiment all of these 03'sters 

 were fat and in fine condition for the market, and in January, 1909, 

 when the work was brought to a close, they were equal in fatness to 

 the famous oysters of Lynnhaven, Va., and yielded about 5^- pints 

 of thoroughl}^ drained meat per standard bushel, which is equivalent 

 to nearly 7 pints as measured at the shucking houses. The greater 

 thickness of the shells caused them to ''turn out " a smaller (luantity 

 of meats per bushel as compared with the thin shelled oysters of 



