[23] OYSTER CULTURE. 1715 
as an inequality of these conditions may suffice to lead to the decline or 
disappearance of an entire species. 
Like all of those organized beings, animal or vegetable, which are 
obliged from their nature to live securely fastened or attached at the 
place of their birth, forming there aggregations of similar individuals, 
aggregations which are always increasing, and which, when reaching 
beyond certain limits, become fatal, first to other species inhabiting 
the same places, and finally to themselves, oysters have numerous 
enemies, which restrict their increase and retain them within the just 
limits of fruitfulness, not permitting the general encroachment or usur- 
pation of outside localities and the destruction of other marine species. 
Innumerable hordes of fishes, mollusks, crustaceans, and polyps gain 
their nourishment almost exclusively from the spawn of the oyster and 
from the oyster itself; for, even in an adult state, the oyster is the prey 
of crabs, aquatic birds, and certain worms which pierce the valves of 
the shell and destroy the animal sheltered within them. But the fecun- 
dity of the oyster is so great, and the number of living germs which 
float in the water during the spawning season is so large, that all of 
these enemies together are not able to diminish the number and extent 
of the oyster banks, nor even arrest for an instant their continued growth 
and enlargement. It is not then against these enemies that we shall 
have especially to seek a means of defense, since such defense would 
be valueless, as it would not operate against the real cause of the evil, 
and powerless, as it is impossible to subvert natural laws. 
Along all portions of our coast where oysters exist this mollusk has 
very sensibly diminished in numbers. This fact is unfortunately ac- 
knowledged by all; diversity of opinion’exists only with regard to the 
causes which have led to this decadence, the principal ones, dependent 
upon locality, being accumulations of mud er sand upon the bottom, 
invasions of mussels, or the invasion of the maérle. To these pretended 
causes we will add a fourth, the only true one, according to our opinion, 
which can account for the continued decadence of the oyster industry, 
and in fact the only one which demands prompt remedy. It is, unin- 
telligent and avaricious fishing of the oyster banks by oystermen, a 
fishing which has heretofore been directed by routine and the selfish 
carelessness of the fishermen, and not by a profound knowledge of the 
nature and wants of this mollusk. 
In fact the encroachment of mud and sand, and the invasion of mus- 
sels, and maérle, are not, as are generally believed, the causes of the de- 
struction of the oyster banks, but are consequences of their destruction, 
or at least coexisting occurrences. People are, in general, very easily 
led to establish between two facts, by reason of their simple coincidence, 
a relation of cause to effect, while really they are both only consequences 
of some common and unknown cause; thus in the country, and even in 
the most enlightened centers, the frosts of early April are attributed to 
the influence of the moon, because its appearance coincides with a clear 
