ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATIOlSr OF OYSTERS. 3 



and if successful in surviving its natural enemies a,nd occasional 

 unfavorable conditions it will mature to marketable size in two to 

 four years. 



HISTORY OF ARTIFICIAL OYSTER CULTURE. 



The idea of artificial oyster culture is not a new one. Since the 

 first attempts in France in 1858 by Professor Coste to raise oysters 

 by artificial means, very much has been done and written concerning 

 the oyster and its culture. Unusual accounts of the immense pro- 

 duction that might result from the artificial culture of the oyster 

 have appeared from time to time in papers and books, of such 

 plausibility that even practical oyster growers were led for a time 

 to believe that with little labor great sums might be realized by 

 raising oysters for the table. The first experiments in France were 

 for the most pail complete failures, but gradually, from a study of 

 the localities where favorable results were obtained, a method such 

 as may be found in use along the shores of France to-day was 

 perfected. This method of artificial oyster culture comprised two 

 veiy distinct branches — one being production, and the other rearing 

 and fattening. 



Production consists in placing adult oysters on the beds as a 

 source of spawn and collecting the spat or embryo oysters that attach 

 to suitable objects in the water after swimming about for a short time. 

 These objects or collectors save vast numbers that otherwise would 

 be lost and enable the oyster gi^owers to harvest a crop each year 

 on the grounds they have prepared. 



Rearing consists in placing the spat, when sufficiently developed, 

 in the best locations possible, where they will grow rapidly and be 

 sheltered from the attacks of their natural enemies. Wlien large 

 enough for market the oyster is kept under such physical conditions 

 as will fatten it and render it most suitable for the table. This 

 method, as developed along the shores of France, is the most perfect 

 and thorough system of oyster culture in the world. However, 

 though methods similar in princij)le to those of the French hare been 

 carried on to some extent in the United States, they have been lim- 

 ited necessarily by the high cost of labor, different tidal and cli- 

 matic conditions, and the difference in the species of oyster. In 

 order to improve ujjon the methods of cultivation as practiced in the 

 United States at present, attempts have been made since 1880 to 

 develop a process wherelDy the oyster larvae can be hatched and 

 reared in receptacles or tanks until they set. These studies in arti- 

 ficial propagation were first carried on by Brooks, Ryder, Rice, and 

 Winslow, but proved unsuccessful after several years of endeavor. 



In carefully reviewing the results of their work the reason for 

 failure is attributed mainly to one thing — filtration. The oyster 

 eggs and larva3 are microscopic in size, and the greatest problem 

 has been to find a means of permitting a flow of water and yet 

 retaining the larvic. 



Later, in 1920, oyster larva were reared to setting size bj^ W. F. 

 Wells, of the New York State Conservation Commission, by the 

 use of a milk separator for renewing the water in which the young 

 oysters were kept. The process again proved successful in 1923, 

 when a greater number of oysters was produced by artificial means, 



