82 Our Food Mollusks 



son with that of the European culturist. There is one 

 fundamental difference between the two industries. In 

 America, except on the Pacific coast, oyster grounds are 

 all below the tide lines, and some are in very deep water. 

 In Europe they lie between the tide lines. Deep water 

 farming is not possible on the coast of Europe, but there 

 is no natural condition that would prevent the employ- 

 ment of European methods here. 



But the time can not yet be seen when it may be profit- 

 able to utilize the beaches for oyster culture in America, 

 though the imagination is excited when one views the 

 immense wastes of salt marsh bounding much of our 

 Atlantic coast, that might, if expense were no object, 

 probably successfully be converted into innumerable 

 oyster ponds. Whether or not the utilization of our 

 marsh lands will ever be attempted, the difficulties that 

 have been overcome by the European culturist are very 

 interesting. He leases a plot of ground on a flat that 

 is exposed for a considerable period each day at low 

 water, and in most cases much labor is necessary to pre- 

 pare it before it can be used for rearing young oysters. 

 Enemies are numerous. Among them are the starfish 

 that infest the bottom — slow-moving, harmless appear- 

 ing creatures, but the most voracious and deadly of the 

 foes of the oyster; crabs, the powerful claws of which 

 are able to crush the fragile shells of the young; and 

 drilling mollusks that pierce the shell even of adult 

 oysters and consume the soft part enclosed within. 

 These also must be avoided or destroyed. To all this 

 may be added the fact that bottoms are often so soft 

 that they will not bear more than a man's weight. Such 

 a condition alone might seem sufficient to make oyster 

 culture impossible. 



