ARTIFICIAL PROPAGATION OF OYSTERS 



By William Firth Wells 



Biologist and Sanitarian, Conservation Commission 

 Albany, N. Y. 



As long ago as 1879 Professor Brooks, of Johns 

 Hopkins University, working at Crisfield, Md., on the 

 shores of Chesapeake Bay, demonstrated that spawn could 

 be taken from the female oyster, fertilized in much the 

 same manner as are the eggs of fish in hatcheries, and that 

 the ^oung oysters could be kept alive until they had ab- 

 sorbed their yolk — a period of about six days. In the 

 forty years which have elapsed since that time other sci- 

 entists have worked at the problem, but no records have 

 been published which indicate any material advance in the 

 artificial propagation of oysters. None of these investi- 

 gators has been able to carry the young oyster beyond the 

 stage when it has used up the food material bequeathed 

 by the mother and seeks to secure its own food. In 

 other words, no means has heretofore been devised for 

 feeding the young oysters. 



The chief cause of this failure is the microscopic size 

 of the young oyster, which, at the time it starts to seek 

 food, is so infinitesimal that it would require four hun- 

 dred of them to reach one inch. Previous experimenters 

 have frankly admitted that they could proceed no further 

 because they had no method of changing the water — and 

 thus supplying fresh food — without losing their minute 

 charges. The difficulties were therefore chiefly technical, 

 and the attempt this summer, which has led to success, 

 was to develop the technical methods so as to be able to 

 handle the forms in such a way that the water could be 

 changed, enemies eliminated, and food, air and other neces- 

 sary factors provided. 



