Sea Farming 9 



troduced on the Pacific coast, where it has now spread 

 over large areas. Why may not some of the more 

 valuable of the bivalves of the western coast be reared 

 artificially in the colder waters of the Atlantic? The 

 Japanese possess a larger and better oyster than the native 

 form of the Pacific, found in Washington and California. 

 It is perhaps not superior to our eastern oyster, but the 

 latter is not able to reproduce in the cold Pacific waters, 

 in which possibly the Japanese form would thrive. The 

 state of Louisiana is about to make the attempt to estab- 

 lish the hard clam or " little neck," found near the Chan- 

 deleur Islands, on its coast west of the delta of the Mis- 

 sissippi, where shore bottoms are now entirely barren, but 

 on which conditions seem to be favorable for the ex- 

 istence of this valuable food mollusk. There are nearly 

 everywhere similar opportunities to utilize waste and bar- 

 ren places on our shores. And without becoming unduly 

 optimistic over the matter, we are probably warranted 

 in expecting that, when the experiments are made, many 

 forms beside the cod, the shad and other fishes, the oyster, 

 and the clam, will prove to be more or less perfectly 

 responsive to the new conditions that the human agency 

 shall determine. 



A most auspicious beginning has been made of what 

 may in time become the artificial control of very many 

 useful marine organisms. Why should the sea and its in- 

 habitants be regarded as essentially untameable ? There 

 is something about the vastness of its resources that ap- 

 peals strongly to the imagination. ■ Who is able to stand 

 unmoved before the awful demonstration of power that 

 the waves make on a shore? We possess no means of 

 measuring the force of the tides. Even those who pro- 

 fess to be shocked at the thought of utilitarianism in con- 



