198 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE [Mai'cli, 1888. 



were in full operation, and during tMs period the liilill Pond Oyster was at its 

 best, but as the steam engine took the place of the water-wheel, it was no lon- 

 ger necessary to use the ponds except to float the logs and rafts and keep them 

 from drifting away. 



As soon as the water-wheel was done away with at any particular pond there 

 was noticed a deterioration of the Oj^ster. This I account for in this manner : 

 the use of the water-wheel having been discontinued, it was not necessaiy to 

 open the gates and refill the ponds twice daily, as was formerly done ; they 

 were only opened occasionally to allow new logs to enter the ponds, and often 

 several days would elapse before the water was changed, this we can readily see 

 was injiuious, as we know that on some days the evaporation from these ponds 

 is over two inches, and this continuing for several days would make the water 

 very salt. Then again, hard rains have been known to freshen them consider- 

 ably. But as they appeared to be just as iDroliiic the matter was not reme- 

 died. 



The owners of some of these ponds, thinking to improve the Oysters and at 

 the same time cultivate them to advantage, removed all the logs from the 

 ponds ; before the second season was over they noticed that the beds were 

 somewhat depleted, but as there had been heavy draughts upon them, thought 

 to restock them, which had not been necessary before, so without any experi- 

 ence or experiment, they placed in the ponds hundreds of bushels of seedling 

 oysters from the bays and creeks of the river. 



To theu' utter amazement and great financial loss all of these oysters died, 

 but few survived the first year, and they never produced any young. Think- 

 ing that the cause of the trouble was in the water, they flushed their ponds 

 daily, the old Oysters were perceptibly improved but all the transplanted ones 

 died, and no young were produced, thus the beds were almost completely ex- 

 hausted, the owners became disheartened, and many of the ponds were aban- 

 doned. In 1868 and 1869 a company was formed which secured the finest and 

 largest of the ponds, and, with the outlay of an enormous sum of money, they 

 were stocked with several varieties of oysters. It had the most exx3erienced 

 oystermen to plant the seedlings, and some of the best scientific minds were in- 

 terested in the veutui-e, among them, our cultured brother member, the late 

 John McCrady, who had made the Oyster and its diseases a special study. 



The Company met with utter failure, either to cultivate or reproduce the 

 oyster, in the second year the venture was abandoned, and the reproduction of 

 the Mill Pond Oyster has since only been attempted on a small scale, and with 

 but partial success. For the last ten years it has been obsolete. I do not 

 know if any scientific roind has looked into this mystery, or tried to solve the 

 reason of the failure, but I have made some attempt to discover it, and I beheve 

 I have been successful. My first investigation was to ascertain why the trans- 

 planted oyster would not hve. It has been held that the Oysters of the ponds 

 were diseased or infested by some parasite which killed the seedlings. This, I 

 believe, was Mr. McCrady's opinion also, but 1 found that the death of the seed 

 oyster was caused simply by its being smothered, it did not have the gills to 



