FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 35 



torn, so whatever was inside was let loose. Just previous to 

 that he had taken oysters in the same manner which Mr. Mather 

 has described, and had hatched out a very large number. You 

 gentlemen may be all aware, probably, that the great difficulty 

 up to a very recent time has been to induce these young oysters 

 to live beyond three days. There has been no difficulty about 

 hatching out oysters and in keeping them alive through what is 

 called the free swimming stage, which is about three days. At 

 the end of that time it is their nature to attach themselves to 

 something and they have invariably, up to a very recent period, 

 died when they reached that stage. Some recent experiments 

 have been made by which they have succeeded in carrying them 

 beyond that. Prof. Rice, whom some of us have met, told me 

 he had succeeded in carrying some of them three or four weeks. 



Mr. Mather. — Yes, in a small aquarium, but they finally died. 



Dr. Hudson. — The experiment that was tried in Connecticut 

 was to take these young oysters during this free swimming 

 stage, put them down on good bottom on Long Island Sound 

 and there release them. The product of that particular locality 

 was remarkably good afterward, but the general set of the 

 sound was so great that it was very difficult to appreciate just 

 how much the set was increased by this peculiar process. As 

 Mr. Booth has said, the system that was adopted in Connecticut 

 of distributing clean shells has been attended with great success. 

 Some large dealers distributed as many as three thousand 

 bushels of shells, during the season and the young spat cling to 

 the " cultch," as it is called, in immense quantities, such quanti- 

 ties that in very many instances they have to be culled out and 

 removed to other localities for fear that they will smother each 

 other, and as I said before, were it not for the enemies, the 

 amount of oysters which might be produced would actually be 

 almost unlimited. 



Mr. Fairbank. — When are they destroyed by starfish ? 



Dr. Hudson. — Generally when they are very young. The 

 starfish is a very peculiar animal. They have a faculty of ex- 

 truding the stomacli and covering the entire oyster or other 



