716 EEPOET OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [44] 



coiitiuually occupied in this vast exploitation, and the number is in- 

 creased at busy periods to 80 or 90. 



Experiments liave been made by M. Venot upon American oysters. 

 Of four lots of spawn forwarded from America two arrived in good con- 

 dition, and the surviving individuals were placed in the pares of Cras- 

 torbe, and promptly recovered from tlie fatigue of their long journey. 

 Their development was rapid. We can best compare them with the 

 oysters of Portugal, which these American specimens resemble in a 

 great many respects. The American oyster has been little appreciated 

 in our country. Its rearing has been abandoned. 



As with almost all the principal oyster-culturists, and especially M. 

 Montauge, whose establishments are conducted on a grand scale, the 

 oysters issuing from the pares of the partnership of Venot & Co. are 

 not immediately sent to market. They are first transi)orted to basins 

 convenient to the warehouses, where tbey are permitted to disgorge. 

 Then they are washed and sorted again. The sorting is done by means 

 of macliines, which render this service easy. A single woman can sort 

 in one day from 20,000 to 30,000. 



The establishment of Saint Joseph. — Among the principal plant- 

 ers on the Gironde, who, in addition to the conduct of their business, 

 have devoted themselves to experiments with a view of perfecting oyster- 

 cultural methods, 1 may cite the brothers MM. de Montauge, who have 

 organized upon the road from La Teste an experimental laboratory in 

 their great establishment of Saint-Joseph. 



This laboratory, to which will be very shortly annexed a cabinet of 

 research and observation provided with microscopes, consists of a basin 

 having an area of 1,500 square meters and a depth of 1 meter, which is 

 divided into two compartments, one of which is devoted to the prepara- 

 tion of the oysters which are to be shipped, the other to experimental 

 work. The bottom of the first compartment is asphalted ; the bottom 

 of the second has been excavated, and the material removed replaced 

 by a layer of clay rammed and i)uddled, surmounted with another layer 

 of sand and shells. These arrangements have been made in order to 

 prevent any infiltration of water derived from the springs which rise 

 in the grounds of the MM. deMontaugd, the metallic ingredients of which 

 are injurious to the oyster. 



The basin is fed by means of a great sluice gate, which is opened by 

 the rising tide and closed when the tide returns. This gate is placed 

 at the head of a canal, the entrance to which is in the mouth of a small 

 stream of fresh water. At the beginning they exercised the greatest 

 care to prevent these fresh waters from mingling with the water of the 

 sea during the renewal of the supply in the basin. 



MM. de Montauge studied inoneof their experiments whataptitude the 

 captive oyster had to produce spawn capable of developing. For three 

 years the adult oysters placed in the reservoir of observation apparently 

 did not emit any embryons. They even became emaciated. The ex- 



