$32 | REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [8] 
This is a question to which I beg to call the favorable attention of M. 
the minister of the marine. His active solicitude for the interest of 
these modest workers, and his desire to utilize their zeal, will inspire 
him with the thought of bettering their condition. 
A question of some importance naturally suggests itself here: it is 
that of ascertaining whether the process actually in use for breeding 
fish in fresh water can be applied to oyster culture; in other words, are 
oysters susceptible of being propagated by artificial fecundation? M. 
de Quatrefages thought so, and he advises the industry to have recourse 
to this process, which he has not experimented upon, but which he 
believes would be efficient from the anatomical researches which he has 
made upon the structure of the generative organs of these mollusks. I 
quote verbatim the note which this naturalist has published upon this 
subject, in order that all the elements of the question with which I am 
occupied may be brought together before the mind of the reader. 
“Tt is generally admitted,” said he, ‘that in oysters the sexes are 
united. Observations which I made some years ago led me to accept a 
contrary opinion. More recent researches, due to M. Blanchard, have 
confirmed these first results, and I believe that we should consider these 
mollusks as having the sexes distinct. Experience has taught me that, 
among mollusks which present this condition, artificial fecundation 
readily sueceeds. Thenceforth we would be able to apply this process 
to the raising of oysters as wellas to the raising of fish. Even in cases 
where the sexes might be united, I believe that the process would be 
perhaps a little more difficult, though equally applicable, and I am con- 
vinced that the industry would find here, in this application of physi- 
ology, a new source of profit. 
‘‘Several of the oyster banks upon the cultivation of which the fish- 
ing population of Mancha depends for its livelihood are so poor that it 
is necessary to abandon them. Left to themselves, the restocking is 
always very slow; in a short time a bank is so completely exhausted as 
to entirely disappear, when, as soon as we know localities favorable to 
the development of oysters, it would be easy, by resorting to artificial 
fecundation, to obtain a prompt restocking, for certain facts which I 
have had the opportunity of observing have taught me that oysters, 
once fixed, grow rapidly. 
“To stock an exhausted bank with oysters it would be necessary to 
convey the fertilized eggs to the very bottom, in order to avoid the 
losses which the currents and waves would inevitably cause. To this 
end, I believe we ought to carry on fecundation in vessels contain- 
ing a sufficient quantity of water, and then, with the aid of pumps, 
the pipes of which should be sunk to a sufficient depth, spread the eggs 
over all the places which were formerly richest. We understand, how- 
ever, that although artiticial fecundation permits of the restocking of 
these oyster fields at will, it would be useless to plant an entire bank 
more than a league in length. 
