[3]. CONDITION OF OYSTER CULTURE IN 1875. 887 
an aid in extending the knowledge and facilitating the progress of an 
industry which is still new and full of promise for the future. 
I recommend that this report be published in the Revue Maritime 
et Coloniale. 
Commissary-general of the marine, director of administrative affairs, 
| Signed: DE BON. 
Approved. 
Signed: MONTAIGNAC, 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE CONDITION OF OYSTER CULTURE 
IN 1875. 
In addition to the taking of oysters by dredging, there exist two very 
distinct branches of oyster industry, which have hitherto been carried 
on to a very unequal extent. 
The first consists only in the improvement of oysters taken from 
natural banks. The oysters are taken, so to speak, ready-made, are de- 
posited in localities calculated to give them certain qualities of flavor, 
shape, or color, and are then furnished to consumers after they have ac- 
quired these qualities, which increase their market value. It is a sort 
of stock-raising, analogous to that of the farmer who buys lean cattle 
and fattens them before sending them to market. 
The second industry consists in taking the oysters when they are in 
an almost embryonic state, as soon as they have left the valves of the 
mother oyster; in favoring the first phases of their development by special 
care, thus saving from destruction a multitude of germs which would 
perish if left to themselves; and subsequently in increasing artificially the 
harvest of these productions which nature lavishes with so much care- 
lessness and prodigality. This latter industry has been compared to 
agriculture, which multiplies the productions of the earth in order to 
meet the constantly increasing demands of mankind; hence the name 
oyster culture, which has of late been applied to it. 
I.— HISTORY. 
RAISING OF OYSTERS TAKEN FROM NATURAL BEDS. 
Ancient origin of this industry.—The rearing of oysters by the first 
of the two methods just spoken of is of very ancient date. Historians 
relate that a rich Roman, named Sergius Orata, a contemporary of 
Cicero, at the close of the Roman Republic, conceived the idea of bring- 
ing oysters from Brindes, and of parking them in Lake Lucrine, which 
communicated with the Mediterranean Sea not far from Naples. This 
plan resulted very successfully, for the oysters of Lake Lucrine soon ac- 
quired an unequaled reputation and the originator of the idea derived 
considerable profit therefrom. This industry appears to have been per- 
petuated in the country where it began. M. Coste, the celebrated propa- 
