XXIII -REPORT OF EXPERIMENTS IN THE ARTIFICIAL PROP- 

 AGATION OF OYSTERS, CONDUCTED AT BEAUFORT, N. C, 

 AND FAIR HAVEN, CONN., IN 1882. 



By Lieut. Francis Winslow, U. S. N. 



The chronicle of the different successful efforts to artificially impreg- 

 nate the egg of the oyster is short. In 1879, Dr. W. K. Brooks suc- 

 ceeded with the American species [Ostrea Virginiana). In 1880, follow- 

 ing; his methods, I succeeded with the Portuguese {Ostrea angulata), one 

 of the European species. During the same season Mr. J. A. Ryder 

 made another attempt, likewise following Brooks's methods, with our 

 domestic oyster, and I have no doubt, though I have seen no published 

 accounts of other experiments, that since the initial trial in 1879 Dr. 

 Brooks has had many followers both in this country and abroad. 



The history of these several efforts to raise the oyster from the egg 

 by means of the artificial impregnation of the ova has been before the 

 l)ublic for some timo. Dr. Brooks' experiments are detailed in the 

 i^ejjort of the Maryland Fish Commission for 1880, and in the Studies 

 of the Johns Hopkins Seaside Laboratory for the same year. Mr. Ry- 

 der's experiences and my own are published in the Report of the Mary- 

 land Fish Commission for 1881. All these are so well known that it is 

 unnecessary to here recapitulate even their jirincipal features; but one 

 point is worthy of notice. Each experiment has attained about the 

 same degree of success, or perhaps it would be better to say has failed 

 at nearly the same j^oint. The egg has been impregnated and the 

 embryo maintained alive for various periods; but beyond a certain 

 stage, neither Dr. Brooks, Mr. Ryder, nor myself have yet succeeded 

 in keeping them. 



The success of the initial experiment was so great, and the advance 

 in oyster culture ai)peared of so much importance, that investigators, 

 myself among the number, were perhaps too sanguine ; possibilities ap- 

 peared probabilities. We expected that as soon as a few changes were 

 made in the apparatus, and methods somewhat more nearly perfect 

 were introduced, we would be able to produce young oysters with the 

 same facility as young shad, and with a greater surety with the former 

 of reaping the reward of our labors, than was possible in the case of the 

 latter. But after my experience of the past spring and summer I am 

 convinced that it will require a series of pains-taking experiments, ex- 

 tending over considerable time and conducted under many dissimilar 



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