[27] OYSTER CULTURE. tate 
are regulated by wise and efficacious laws, and the restoration of the 
devastated banks is in a fair way of being accomplished, so that in the 
near future not only will the evil be repaired, but a return to the former 
state of affairs will become impossible. But is this all that can be done? 
We have already said that among the myriads of germs sent forth from 
a bed of oysters at every spawning period, asmall proportion only, that 
which becomes attached to objects on its native bed, is apt to furnish 
any recruits for the bed, or any subjects for the fepeen) while by far 
the greater share are devoured by their many foes, carried away by the 
tides, or buried up in the shifting sand and mud. Now, if it were possi- 
ble to gather up at the time of spawning all of these swarms and place 
them where the conditions are favorable to their development, what 
incalculable wealth would result, and the truth of the matter is that 
this gathering up and guarding of the young is entirely feasible. It has 
been tested by so many experiments that it rests beyond a doubt, and 
one can even now with ease and certainty labor in this direction, since 
we know the conditions favorable to the growth of the young, such as 
are met with in the depths of the ocean, and which it would be neces- 
sary to provide artificially in order to favor their development. This 
is the work reserved for private enterprise, and it has been with the 
desire of furnishing a guide in this labor that this book has been written, 
and that the practical development of the oyster industry has been 
made the subject of the following chapters. 
Among crustaceans the common and the rock lobsters occupy an 
important rank as food animals and as objects of trade; the fisheries 
of our coast supply not only all of France, but also a great part of 
Europe. The high price of these animals during the last few years, 
which has banished this kind of food from the tables of the poor, at 
least in the interior, and at the same time their relative scarcity in our 
markets, are consequences of the increased fishing to which they have 
been subjected, and of their gradual disappearance from our waters, 
where they were formerly so abundant. As in the case of the oyster 
fisheries, it is necessary to seek for the cause of this disappearance 
in the avariciousness of the fishermen and in the uselessness of the 
old protective regulations. In fact, if one has carefully followed the 
details which we have already given on a previous page, in regard to 
the manner of reproduction of crustaceans, it will be seen that the 
period of time intervening between the fecundation of the female and 
the hatching of the eggs, is about nine months, the fecundation begin- 
ning in September and the incubation ending in May. During these 
nine months these animals ought then to be entirely protected, for the 
death of a female at any moment whatsoever of this time is equivalent 
to the destruction of many thousands of individuals, even where great 
allowance is made for the many chances of destruction which surround 
the young before they are fully developed. It is thus during only three 
months, June, July, and August, that regulations really protective to 
