THE OYSTER. 43 



an immense number of eggs is produced by a single 

 oyster, it is believed that not one in a million of eggs 

 ever comes to a full-grown mollusk. A single fish will 

 devour a million of eggs at a mouthful, to say nothing 

 of the poor, innocent little spats that make nice fish- 

 food. The mother herself swallows eggs without 

 knowing it. Still there are enough spats saved to 

 make our six billions of oysters. 



In their natural state, oysters live and grow in beds. 

 These beds can only flourish in small bays, coves, and 

 inlets of the sea coast, protected from the fury of the 

 ocean waves and from storms. 

 The water must be neither too 

 cold nor too warm, and must 

 contain an abundance of mi- 

 croscopical food. The places 

 where spats are cradled and 

 reared, therefore, are neces- 

 sarily few. There are two 

 kinds of oyster beds, the nat- 

 ural and the artificial. In the 



Oyster Seed. 



natural beds, where the ani- 

 mals are left to themselves, they grow in heaps. The 

 spats fasten to the older oysters, and in separating 

 them there is much waste. 



The artificial beds are those in which spats are col- 

 lected, and in which young oysters called "seeds" are 

 transplanted and grow for market. During the spawn- 

 ing season, near where the eggs or spawn of old oys- 

 ters are wont to drift, a bed is prepared for collecting 

 the spats. Oyster shells are usually thrown on 'the 

 bottom for the spats to fasten to, though the little 



