OYSTEKS AND METHODS OF OTSTEE-CULTUEE. 



By H. F. MooRK, 

 Assistant, United States Fish Commission. 



INTRODUCTION. 



This paper is designed to briefly set forth the principal facts relating 

 to the subject of oyster- culture in the United States. It embraces the 

 practices of proved commercial value as well as a summary of the 

 methods and results of investigations which appear to give some prom- 

 ise of utility in certain i)laces and under special conditions, or which 

 indicate the lines along which j)rofltable experiment maybe carried on. 

 It is intended primarily as a guide to those persons who are exhibiting 

 an interest in the subject and who contemplate embarking in tbe 

 industry, yet hesitate on account of unfamiliarity with the methods 

 employed. To aid such persons to a more thorough understanding of 

 the problem involved, certain matters are considered which do not 

 strictly appertain to the practical side of the subject, but which may 

 assist in explaining observed phenomena or in indicating the lim- 

 itations and possibilities of experiment. Such are the chapters on 

 development and anatomy. 



Attention is directed chiefly to the eastern oyster, which is the species 

 of principal, one might almost say only, interest in this country, and, 

 practically, the great problem of oyster-culture api^lies to it alone. 

 For comparative purposes, however, and to round out the information 

 presented, it has seemed advisable to incoriwrate some facts regarding 

 the native oysters of the Pacific Coast. 



DISTRIBUTION. 

 ATLANTIC COAST. 



Upon the eastern coast of North America there is but one species of 

 oyster, Ostrea rirginiana, which occurs along the northern side of the 

 Gulf of Mexico, on the Atlantic coast from Florida to Cape Cod, and on 

 the southern and western shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In 

 Massachusetts Bay and on the coast of New Hampshire and Maine it 

 does not now occur, though it was found in abundance locally at the 

 time of the settlement of the country, and the former existence of beds 

 of great extent is indicated by the vast quantities of the valves in the 

 ancient Indian shell-heaps. Oyster fisheries are located in every coast- 

 wise State from Texas to ^Massachusetts and in the Maritime Provinces, 



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