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step. After some difficulties had been overcome, this 

 was successfully accomplished in specially prepared 

 reservoirs, and the possibility of the artificial produc- 

 tion of these oysters was an accomplished fact. The 

 principal advantages offered by the artificial over the 

 natural method are : (1) That instead of only one 

 harvest, two or three can be obtained in a year ; and 

 (2) that whereas in a state of nature only about one- 

 tenth of the ova are developed, this proportion is 

 increased by the artificial process to approximately 

 three-fourths. 



It is easy to understand of what a prodigious 

 increase this industry is capable under these conditions. 

 All suitable districts might at a comparatively small 

 outlay be stocked with great rapidity, and in the 

 course of a few years, banks which would be regularly 

 productive formed. Mr Bouchou-Brandely's suggest- 

 ions in this direction are suggestive. Thus, he points 

 out the desirability of the local commissioners deepen- 

 ing and cleansing suitable canals. Let us pass, he 

 says : from the coasts of the ocean to the borders of 

 the Mediterranean. We are here in the presence of 

 flats and immense lagunes, which no one has attempted 

 to fertilise. 



It is not the first time that we have urged in these 

 pages that, off many a dreary point near the mouths 

 of Scotch, English and Irish rivers there are all the 

 features of a prolific oyster-nursery ; but little is done 

 to encourage such industries. The matter is left 



