916 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [4] 



from the collector. These beds supply a great many fattening beds 

 along the doast with young oysters. 



Percy H. Euss, of Sligo, Ireland, who owns fattening beds near Cul- 

 leenamore, Cullenduff, and Luflerton, exhibited Arcachon oysters which 

 he had fattened on his beds. As his attempts to gather young oysters 

 had failed, he now confines himself exclusively to the fattening of 

 French oysters. The months of March and April are said to be the 

 most favorable for transplanting oysters from the French beds. Four- 

 year-old French oysters fattened on Irish beds were sold this year at 14 

 shillings per 120 oysters, or about $2.83 per hundred. 



Several English oyster-dealers exhibited American and Portuguese 

 oysters (Ostrea angulata). These oysters, however, are but little sought 

 either in the English or the continental markets, and it would therefore 

 be folly to stock waters which have no oysters with these inferior va- 

 rieties. Some in this country have spoken in favor of the American 

 oysters, but as a general rule they arc not liked. There is, however, 

 reasonable hope that our own beds will soon be able to furnish all the 

 oysters needed for stocking our waters. If, nevertheless, it should be 

 deemed necessary to import mother oysters, it seems to me that they 

 should be imi)orted from Holland or France, in order to make a practi- 

 cal test as to how these oysters will flourish in our waters and climate. 



The French department was not very well represented. Alphonse 

 Martin, of Auray, placed on exhibition oysters in different stages of de- 

 velopment, and also some apparatus used in oyster-culture, the follow- 

 ing of which deserves special mention : ■ 



1. A collector made of boards. It consists of ten shelves, arranged 

 one above the other. Each shelf consists of ten boards, 7 or 8 centimeters 

 broad and 1 centimeter thick. The distance between the shelves is 5 

 centimeters. At both ends the collector is inclosed by a belt of thin 

 laths, whose prolongation forms the four legs of the collector. When the 

 collector is full, and the young oysters are to be tuken off, the belt is 

 loosened and the shelves come apart. The entire collector is covered 

 with a mixture of lime and sand. This collector is expensive, but de- 

 serves to be recommended, because on its different shelves it will gather 

 a large number of young oysters. It can easily be kept clean, as tlie light 

 falls only on the upper shelf, where a vegetation of confervte will prin- 

 cipally be found. 



2. A " hospital " for young oysters, resembling a common bed, with bot- 

 tom and lid of galvanized iron wire and wooden sides. The lid is fast- 

 ened to the frame by wooden pegs which pass through the prolongation 

 of the legs. Formerly floating "hospitals" were often used, while now 

 they are generally placed at the bottom, to which they are held fast 

 by four rectangular iron hooks, one of which spans each corner of the 

 "hospital." 



3. A trough-shaped sieve of tin, JO centimeters deep, 50 broad, aud 



