riioto from Dr. Hugh .M. Snmli 

 VERY YOUNG OYSTERS ("SPAX") ATTACHED TO THE INSIDE OF AN OYSTER SHEIX 

 WHICH HAS BEEN "pLANTEd" FOR THIS PURPOSE 



The planting of suitable material, such as old shells, gravel, etc., to which young oysters 

 may attach themselves after the free-swimming stage, is an exceedingly important branch 

 of the oyster industry, for any of the young falling on mud or sand are lost. 



Of the millions of microscopic young 

 liberated by a single full-grown oyster, 

 only an exceedingly small percentage be- 

 come attached to a suitable bottom, form 

 a shell, and enter on a career that will 

 terminate on the table in two to four 

 years. When the temperature, density, 

 tides, and currents are favorable, the 

 young will settle on an existing bar or 

 bed, covering the shells of the old oys- 

 ters and any other hard surfaces or ob- 

 jects that may be present. All the young 

 that fall on a muddy or soft sandy bot- 

 tom, or on surfaces that are slimy, are 

 lost. Oyster culture therefore aims pri- 

 marily to conserve the free-swimming 

 young, which it accomplishes by sowing 

 clean oyster-shells or other "cultch" to 

 Avhich the "spat'' can attach, or by col- 

 lecting the young on tiles or brush raised 

 above the bottom or suspended between 

 surface and bottom (see pages 269 and 

 274). 



CHIN.V AND ITALY CULTIVATED OYSTERS 

 2,000 YEARS Af.O 



Oysters have been under culture longer 

 than any other shellfish and, indeed, than 

 any other water creature. A simple type 

 ■of cultivation, with the formation of 



artificial beds, flourished in China at 

 a very remote period and probably an- 

 tedated by some centuries the inception 

 of oyster culture in Italy, about the year 

 TOO B. C. With the advance of civiliza- 

 tion and the increase in population, oys- 

 ters were in greater demand and of ne- 

 cessity came under cultivation in all the 

 important maritime countries of Europe, 

 where, at the present time, fully 90 per 

 cent of the output represents oysters that 

 have undergone some kind of culture. 

 In other parts of the Old World the 

 growing of oysters by artificial means 

 has become an important industry, while 

 in the Western Hemisphere oyster farm- 

 ing has progressed to such a point that 

 the annual crop now exceeds the total 

 product of the rest of the world. 



Oysters are thus become the most ex- 

 tensively cultivated of all aquatic ani- 

 mals, and the yearly product of the oyster 

 farms is many times more valuable than 

 that of all other aquicultural operations 

 combined. 



The cultivation of oysters is made 

 necessary by the exhaustion of the nat- 

 ural beds ; it is made possible by private 

 ownership or control of oyster-producing 

 bottoms ; and it is greatly facilitated by 



259 



