[47] THE OYSTER AND OYSTER-CULTURE. (29 
more vacillating than in the water of the North Sea; that is to say, it 
must become another animal, and yet, at the same time, retain the flavor 
of the oyster. People have experienced a thousand times that the 
best-flavored and most agreeable animals and plants are brought to 
perfection only under entirely definite external conditions of life, yet 
they wish an exception to this law of nature in favor of the oyster. 
They wish for miracles in order that oysters may be supplied to the 
many who are now oyster-eaters, as cheaply and plentifully as they 
formerly were to the few who at that time appreciated their value. 
11—CONCERNING THE INCREASE IN THE PRICE OF OYS- 
TERS AND THE NUMBER OF CONSUMERS, AND THE DE- 
GREASE IN THE NUMBER OF OYSTERS 
In England there are breeders of oysters and others who are well 
versed in oyster economy who maintain that the oyster-banks have 
become impoverished because of a long series of seasons which have been 
unfavorable as breeding years, and not because of overfishing upon the 
beds. According to their observations, there have been no large broods 
of young oysters since 1857, 1858, and 1859. This may be the case in 
regard to a number of localities, but it has no significance in the man- 
agement of a permanent, profitable oyster-culture, since such culture is 
not conducted according to an unusually favorable summer, but accord- 
ing to the average of climatic conditions. And that these conditions 
have not changed in the west of Europe in our century, and thus during 
the time of the impoverishment and exhaustion of many beds along the 
west coast of Europe, is proven by the temperature observations which 
have been made at the Observatory at Paris sincethe year 1806. Accord- 
ing to these, the mean yearly temperature of Paris during this century 
has remained, up to present time, at 10.8° C., from which it follows that 
the climate is the same nowas before any impoverishment took place. In 
1859 there were many young oysters spawned upon the beds along the 
west coast of France. In 1860 there were many young broods upon the 
beds near the island of Ré and near Rocher d’ Aire, and but few broods at 
Areachon ; 1861 was a good brood year for all three places; 1862 bad 
for the island of Ré and good for both the others; and in 1865 there 
were very many young in the Bay of Arcachon and but few near Rocher 
- @ Aire and the island of Ré. These facts show that local conditions can 
either favor or prevent the production of broods of young oysters in one 
and the same year. 
On the 6th of April, 1876, Mr. I’. Pennell ipade a communication to 
the commission for the investigation of the British oyster-fisheries, and 
at the same time remarked that, according to his experience, the number 
of young oysters in each brood period was dependent upon the number of 
breeding oysters, but that, nevertheless, at times, extraordinarily large 
