26 AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY. 



Secretary Mather. — Mr. Chairman and gentlemen : This 

 is a paper on "Oyster Culture," from my own experiments at 

 Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, where I superintend one of 

 the hatcheries of the State of New York, and also do a great 

 deal of work for tlie United States Fish Commission, and this 

 report I should preface by saying that while New York has four 

 commissioners of fisheries, it has but one oyster commissioner, 

 who is also one of the commissioners of fisheries — Mr. E. G. 

 Blackford, and this paper is from my report to be made to him. 



OYSTER CULTURE. 



BY FRED MATHER. 



Mr. E. G. Blackford. 



Commissioner of Fisheries of New York: 



Sir: — I herewith submit to you the report on "Oyster Propa- 

 gation" at Cold Spring Harbor, during the summer of 1885. I 

 had watched the experiments of the late Prof. Henry J. Rice, 

 the previous season, with great interest, and saw that while he 

 hatched many oysters in the great tank, they came to nothing, 

 because, as I believe, the temperature of the water was too high, 

 the tank being in the sun without cover, and supplied with a 

 very small stream of water through a ^-inch hose. This tank 

 was made of two-inch pine plank, twelve feet long six feet 

 wide and three feet deep, coated with coal tar inside and out. I 

 moved the tank to the north side of the fish-hatchery building 

 where it would be shaded, and covered it with boards to keep 

 it clean. The water for the experiments was supplied by a hot 

 air engine belonging to the Fish Commission, and was pumped 

 from our salt-water pond some 700 feet distant from the hatch- 

 ery, and thrown up on the hill in a cemented reservoir, from 

 whence it was brought into the building through two-inch pipes. 

 Two to three hours pumping daily was all that was required for 

 these operations. 



We also made experiments in the large salt-water pond 

 spoken of above. This pond is some 280 feet long, by 150 feet 

 wide, and receives water at high tide through a flood gate which 



