THE OYSTER INDUSTRY. 539 



Bay and the North River, stock from there standing the journey better than the East River 

 oysters, which otherwise seem preferable. Besides these, seed is sent from Raritan River, New 

 Jersey, and Prince's Bay, Staten Island. This seed is so small that a barrel holds from 3,000 to 

 5,000; this number, of course, includes even the "blisters," or oysters so young that you cannot 

 easily detect the double character of the shell, which looks like your finger-nail. Although the 

 average time of passage is only eighteen days by the fast -freight lines, it is expected that about 

 one-fourth of each barrelful will prove dead or too weak to survive transplanting at the end of the 

 journey. The " blisters" will be found to have died far more frequently than the larger oysters, 

 none of which, however, are older than a few months and larger than a silver quarter. The cars 

 in which they are carried are double- walled, so as to preserve an equality of temperature so far as 

 possible, and 22,000 pounds is the limit of the cargo allowed by the company. The freight charges 

 at present are about $10 a barrel. This makes it unprofitable to import any seed except that 

 which is very small, and which by growth cau add very greatly to their size and consequent value. 



The planting beds are situated in various parts of San- Francisco Bay, and nearly all go dry 

 at low water. Some of the localities mentioned are : Millbrse, Saucelito, Alameda Creek, Tomales 

 Bay, Belmout, Oakland Creek, and San Leandro. Sheep Island, I believe, is no longer planted. 

 The State owns the bottom and sells it by auction to the highest bidder, the purchaser being given 

 a patent title in perpetuity. The State's nominal price was $1.25 an acre, but most of the suitable 

 ground was taken up long ago, and must now be bought at second-hand. Portions of it have been 

 sold thus for $100 an acre. The growth is extremely rapid, fully three times as rapid as ordi- 

 narily takes place in eastern waters, and this growth tends toward the fattening of the flesh rather 

 than to greater weight of shell, a result highly desirable; but the mollusk is not considered so 

 hardy here as at the East. The seed remains on the beds from two to four years before selling. 



All attempts to make these eastern oysters fructify and propagate, however, have failed, so 

 far as any commercial benefit is concerned, the oysters dying, seemingly from over-growth, as soon 

 as they have arrived at an age when they might be expected to spawn. This is the local explan- 

 ation. 



It is, however, a fact that a few young eastern oysters are now and then found. The excess- 

 ive fatness is no doubt due to the thick nutritiously muddy water of the bay, but I should say 

 that this had only a secondary effect on the spawning, which was repressed first by the shock of 

 the long railway journey, and secondly by the unnatural coldness of the water to which they are 

 transplanted. It is a parallel fact to the failure to spawn in the case of southern oysters carried 

 'to northern waters on the Atlantic coast. The summer temperature of the water at San Francisco 

 is much lower than that of the water around New York, although the mean winter temperature 

 may be higher. 



6. CULTURE OF OYSTERS FROM THE SPAWN. 



ORIGIN OF OYSTER-CULTURE. As the natural wealth of marketable oysters upon the ancient 

 beds began to be exhausted, and the various methods of transplanting to new ground, and of 

 raising oysters from transferred young, began to be practiced, men became more and more studi- 

 ous of the habits of this profitable mollusk, and observant of the conditions which facilitated its 

 health and increase. 



Attention was turned most zealously to its spawning and the habits of the young, and thus 

 the main outlines of what is now scientifically known in respect to its reproduction were long ago 

 ascertained by the fishermen. Thus it had been a matter of common observation for many years, 

 before practical advantage was taken of the fact, that any object tossed into the water in summer 



