738 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [56] 
the ice used to cool them off does not entirely cover them.* Preserved 
oysters, packed in tin cans, are brought into the markets from North 
America. In these the natural flavor, for which the fresh oyster is so 
highly prized, is as much destroyed as is fhat of the tropical fruits 
which come to us cooked in sugar. If they were not preserved oysters 
they would hardly find purchasers. They serve merely as suggestions 
of fresh oysters. 
13.—THE OBJECT AND RESULTS OF OYSTER-CULTURE. 
The object of a good oyster industry is to gain from the territory 
cultivated the greatest possible profit, and at the same time to render 
the industry permanent. From a bed of inanimate material one can 
take away as much of the mass as he can use with profit. Such 
a proceeding does no harm to the prosperity of the bed, since what is 
left has nothing to do with the production of a new supply. With 
living objects, on the contrary, it is different. They are not quiet, im- 
movable masses, but combinations of materials and active forces, which 
are engaged, among themselves in a continual renewal; and if one is 
to derive the greatest possible benefit from them, their mass must not 
be indiscriminately reduced, as with minerals in a mine, but care must 
be taken that their powers of renewal are not weakened by a lessening 
of their available forces and materials. A breeder of cattle who would 
maintain a certain definite degree of productiveness in his herd must 
keep a definite number of breeding animals. If it is desired to have a 
definite permanent production of wood from a given extent of forest, only 
such an amount must be cut yearly as will be offset by the yearly 
growth. Ifa permanently larger quantity is desired, the forest surface 
must be increased. A profitable permanent system of oyster-culture 
is also dependent upon these same laws. Hence its foundation is the 
preservation of a stock of mature breeding oysters. No artificial sys- 
tem has yet succeeded in bringing to maturity, in inclosed parks, genera- 
tion after generation of oysters, and the most clever breeders are obliged 
to rely upon the natural banks in order to obtain breeding oysters or 
young for their fattening-ponds. Hence the foundation of all oyster 
production, whether artificial or natural, is the preservation of a stock of 
full-grown breeding oysters upon the natural oyster-banks. 
In France, ever since the government undertook to retain upon the 
natural banks along its coast a sufficiently large number of breeding 
oysters to keep up the stock, artificial oyster-breeding has maintained 
a secure basis. by this means the French Government has been en- 
abled, through its fishery commissioners, to determine the beds which 
are in asuitable condition to be fished and the time at which they can 
*The Romans were in the habit of cooling their oysters with ice from the mount- 
ains: ‘‘Addiditque luxuria frigus (ostreis) obrutis nive, summa montium et maris ima 
miscens.” C, Plinii Sec., naturalis historia, lib. xxxii, 6, 21. 
