Rearing Oysters from the Egg 1 13 



writes in his report for 1906, of these early and 

 abandoned efforts to obtain practical results from artifi- 

 cial fertilization as if they were recent, and concludes 

 with the statement that " Meanwhile those engaged in 

 the industry are watching these experiments with the 

 greatest interest and hopefulness." If those engaged in 

 biological work are sometimes regarded as impractical, 

 it was not so in this case. 



It is true that some advance has been made beyond the 

 mere production of the swimming young. In 1881, 

 Lieutenant Winslow, U. S. N., published the statement 

 that he had found it possible to bring about the fertiliza- 

 tion of the eggs of the Portuguese oyster, in which as in 

 our own, the sexes are separate. A year later M. Bou- 

 chon-Brandeley, a Frenchman, who seems not to have 

 known of Winslow's statement, showed that he had been 

 able not only to cause the fertilization of the eggs of the 

 Portuguese oyster, but also to catch the young on col- 

 lectors. 



This was a great achievement, but it depended on a 

 condition that would make it impracticable in American 

 oyster culture. M. Bouchon-Brandeley had at his dis- 

 posal a very large fish pond excavated in a marsh. The 

 water in this had a depth that varied from three to six 

 feet. Several times a week, for a period of two months, 

 artificially fertilized oyster eggs were placed in it, and a 

 set was obtained on the collectors. He proved, too, that 

 the attached young were really those that had been lib- 

 erated, and not those borne into the reservoir from out- 

 side waters. Since that time a few repetitions of the ex- 

 periment in large French claires, seem also to have been 

 successful. 



This French experiment excited much interest in this 



