Wells. — Artificial Propagation of Oysters 303 



proximately a month. It may be somewhat fess in open 

 waters, but circumstantial evidence of varying conditions 

 leads us to think it cannot be much abbreviated. Early investi- 

 gators thought that the period was very short, and even 

 those who had determined that it was a matter of weeks 

 underestimated the interval that was actually found to 

 elapse. 



The far-reaching significance of our success and the 

 possibilities for which it opens the way can be seen in the 

 fact that the set is the starting point of the commercial 

 oyster industry; and the continuous and unexplained fail- 

 ure of the oystermen to secure a satisfactory set of 

 young oysters is the main cause of the declining yield of 

 oysters in northern waters within recent years. Once 

 getting his set, the oysterman is familiar with methods 

 of handling the oysters to raise them for market; but if 

 the young oysters do not attach themselves to the shells 

 which the oysterman deposits for that purpose, his busi- 

 ness naturally fails. Our work thus fills in the baffling 

 gap between the previous studies of scientists and the 

 practical knowledge of the oystermen. 



It is not now beyond the bounds of reasonable antici- 

 pation to look forward to the day when the crop of oysters 

 may be vastly increased, either by stocking the beds with 

 artificially secured sets, or by liberating at the proper 

 tim^ artificially developed young oysters which will make 

 their own set in shell-planted waters. As a single 

 oyster will discharge from 10,000,000 to 100,000,000 eggs 

 each season, the day may be not far off when oysters will 

 come to be a common food of the people, instead of being 

 gradually forced into the class of a luxury for the epicure. 



Our outfit consisted, during the latter part of the work, 

 of a battery of nine glass bottles — having grown to these 

 proportions from one bottle used at the beginning of the 

 experiment. The bottles were five-gallon carboys ordi- 



