174 NINTH REPORT OF THE 



Great numbers of markets, groceries, etc., throughout the country are engaged 

 in handling the bivalves, and constitute an important factor in the ever increasing 

 demand. 



Ouster Oltare. 



The large increase in the quantity of oysters produced and marketed is 

 an evidence of the popularity and high dietetic value of this palatable and easily 

 digested sea food. It has been pointed out by the Lancet that the nutritive 

 material in a raw oyster comprises all classes of food substances, including proteid, 

 carbohydrate, fat and certain mineral salts which are present in a peculiarly 

 assimilable form. 



That the oyster can be propagated by artificial means has long been known, 

 the difficulty having been to apply the methods economically upon a commercial 

 scale. Experiments for this purpose are constantly being carried on by the United 

 States Commission of Fish and Fisheries. The process in use by oyster planters, 

 usually spoken of as "cultivating" the oyster, consists in assisting nature to the 

 extent of preparing suitable beds upon which the spat or spawn can attach itself and 

 make its growth. Slime and mud are fatal to the young oyster. It is therefore 

 necessary for the planter to thoroughly clean his ground under water by use of the 

 dredge. He then covers the bottom with shells which have been cleansed by scour- 

 ino- and drying, or with clean broken stone. This preparation, in the case of the 

 larger tracts of oyster land, may cost many thousands of dollars, which are literally 

 cast upon the waters in the hope that the oyster spat may attach. 



The oyster exudes thousands of eggs, which are carried along by the tides 

 until a clean, hard surface is encountered, when, if the limit of existence in the 

 free-swimming stage has not been reached, it attaches, and there it remains 

 during its life history, unless removed by the planter to other grounds. The 

 uncertainties of the business to the planter are apparent. The spawn from the 

 oysters upon his own grounds may be carried miles away by the currents, while 

 the set upon his lands comes from an unknown quarter; or he may fail entirely 

 to get a set, with the result that the money spent by him in preparing the beds 

 has actually been thrown overboard. Thus, from an oyster farm, other lands may 

 be fertilized and enriched. 



There is occasionally a season during which the oyster set is abundant and 

 general and when all goes well with the planter, but usually the set occurs over 

 small areas or spots, and often there is a season showing almost an entire absence 

 of oyster set. The oyster requires from three to five or more years to mature, 

 so that the business can endure for a few years a dearth of the spat. There has 

 been no general oyster set in New York waters since the year 1899. The abun- 



