OYSTER CULTURE. 25 



difference of opinion should e'xist, the experiment is 

 worth trying, which, if successful, forget not to give 

 the praise to whom it is due. Of course a great 

 number of our fellow-countrymen know the United 

 States ; some of those may have taken interest in this 

 subject, and possibly are better informed than I am ; 

 still there must be a great mass that know nothing 

 about the American oyster; to those, then, I will 

 give the benefit of my experience. From Massachu- 

 setts to Florida, with more or less abundance, oyster 

 fisheries have been established, not only for dredging, 

 but for cultivating. The result is, that this delicacy 

 can be obtained at moderate charges even in the in- 

 terior towns and cities, such as St. Louis and Chica- 

 go ; in fact, there is scarcely a respectable table d'hote 

 eastward of the Mississippi, on whose bill of fare they 

 are not to be found. In the Dominion, where the 

 winters are proverbially severe, they are equally 

 abundant ; New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince 

 Edward Island, and the estuary of the St. Lawrence, 

 have long proved themselves prolific in this respect ; 

 corroborative of the fact that if you can get heat, 

 such as we annually have, it does not matter how 

 severe the winter may prove, for the abundant repro- 

 duction of these bivalves. 



