OYSTERS AND METHODS OF OYSTER-CULTURE. 321 



It is manifestly impossible to propose efficient means for increasing 

 the abundance of the food organisms over any very extended area of 

 open waters, where ownership is vested in the many and the conditions 

 are not subject to control. Only in inclosed or semi-inclosed bodies 

 of water could there be any hope of such regulation of temperature, 

 density, and other factors as to conform to the best conditions for the 

 rapid multiplication of such organisms as constitute the iireponderance 

 of the oyster's food. If it were possible for the planter to have at his 

 command a body of water extremely rich in food he could, in a short time 

 and at will, fatten oysters which had grown to a marketable size upon 

 other and less favorably situated beds. It is probable that under intelli- 

 gent direction a comparatively small area could be made to serve as a 

 fattening bed for all of the oysters produced on a great area of ordinary 

 shelled ground, and that the cost of preparing and maintaining the rich 

 food producing beds would be returned many-fold in the ready sale and 

 high price which the superior product would be able to command. In 

 many jilaces in the United States this plan is followed with success by 

 transplanting the oysters from offshore beds to harbors and coves, but 

 so tar as known no practical and conclusive test of culture in artificially 

 prepared ponds has been made, and it is therefore not possible to give 

 full and practical directions concerning the method to be followed in 

 attemi)ting it. 



The European methods are generally not economically adapted to 

 use in our waters, but the experience of French culturists has estab- 

 lisbed certain principles which are of general application, and may 

 serve as a guide to those working upon somewhat similar lines here. 



There are many localities within the limits of the oyster-producing 

 region of the United States where pond culture for the purpose of 

 growing and fattening oysters would probably prove successful, and salt 

 ponds, connected with tide water by natural or artificial channels, could 

 often be made to return a good dividend to their owners if converted to 

 the uses of oyster culture. In other cases low and swampy land might 

 be dredged or excavated so as to answer the puri)ose, and thus be made 

 to return a revenue in perhaps the only possible manner. Such ponds 

 should be well protected by embankments sufficient to prevent the 

 entrance of water except when desired, the suj)ply being regulated by 

 flood gates which can be opened or closed at will, or the height of the 

 embankments may be so adjusted that the water from the sea will enter 

 during very high tides only, say once, or twice a mouth. When the 

 ponds are large it has been found that the surface aeration is sufficient 

 to supply the oxygen required, but in snuiller ponds it is necessary to 

 attain this end by more or less frecinent interchanges of water between 

 the pond and the main body of salt water with which it is connected. 

 In the case of practically inclosed ponds it is necessary to provide for 

 the addition of fresh water to make good the loss occasioned by evap- 

 oration. If this precaution be neglected the density of the water will 

 rise above the maximum in which the oyster flourishes. 



r. C. U. I8'J7 21 



