XXXI.—A REPORT ON ee ees IN THE MEDITERRA- 
NEAN.* 
By G. Boucnon-BRANDELY, 
Seereiary to the College of France. 
OYSTER-CULTURE IN ITALY. 
It is to Italy we are indebted for the idea of establishing in France 
that branch of industry, so tlourishing at the present time, known as 
oyster-culture. ‘The Romans were the tirst to engage in the cultivation 
of the oyster, and their methods, inherited by the Italians, have come 
down to us without any moditication. The method of cultivating this 
mollusk at Tarente to-day is the same as that practiced in the time of 
Sergius Orata. In 1853 M. Coste visited Fusaro, and from that remark- 
able journey of scientitic exploration, it is said, he brought back the 
elements of the new industry to which science has assigned general 
rules that have since been improved upon by practice. But if, prior 
to that time, an exceptionally tine tlavor was given to the precious 
bivalve at Marennes, Courseuilles, and Cancale, by a special treatment, 
we were still ignorant of the processes of taking the spawn and of sup- 
plementing the loss occasioned by the continued impoverishment of the 
beds on our coast, the sources of production which had formerly been 
erroneously supposed to be inexhaustible. 
Oyster-culture, properly so called, is carried on in Italy in only one 
locality, Tarente. The celebrated Lake Fusaro, to whieh I will devote 
a tew words hereafter, has become sterile and has been abandoned. 
The oysters consumed in Italy, beyond those received from Tarente, 
come trom the gultS of Genoa and Naples, trom the coasts of the 
Adriatic, and trom the ponds of Corsica. 
The Gulf of Genoa produces small and delicate oysters, which are 
* Rapport au Ministre de l'Instruction publique sur la Pisciculture en France et 
L’Ostréioulture dans la Méditerranée, par M. Bouchon-Brandely, Seerétaire du College 
de France. Paris: A. Wittersheim et C%, Quai Voltaire, $1, 1878, (Extrait du Journal 
Officiel des 16, 17 ef 18 Mai 1878.) small 8 vo, pamphlet, pp. 103. Only that portion 
of the report devoted to oyster-culture in the Mediterranean (pp. 45-108) is reproduced 
hare. 
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