EUROPEAN METHODS OF OYSTER-CULTURE. 
379 
To summarize, the oyster industry in Germany is entirely dependent upon the 
surplus of its natural beds. French culture has not been introduced in its behalf, but 
the writer does not consider it proven that this system is an impracticable one in the 
German waters, or that artificial oyster-culture is suitable for France and not for a 
neighboring country. The few experiments tried in Germany with regard to artificial 
collection have not, as far as the writer could learn, been in accordance with recent 
improvements. Tiles that have been put out in the neighborhood of the natural banks 
appear to have been arranged in single tiers, in a way that would have succeeded 
in the hard river bottom at Jerseke, but would never have' been attempted in the 
sediment-bearing water of Auray. These tiles, placed upon a very muddy locality, 
were not unnaturally engulfed in part, and in part so covered with sediment that a set 
could not have been obtained. 
The few experiments tried in the government station at Husum have signally 
failed, the usual fate of experiments upon production in small, closed ponds, where 
stagnation, i. e., malaeration and fouling of water, caused by death and decay of the 
spawning oysters, added, in this case, to the dangers of silt deposit, have been the 
stumbling-blocks. The matter accordingly has rested, and no further expenses have 
been incurred by government in what were supposed to be fruitless experiments. 
The dredging contract, moreover, held by a single firm, has been unfavorable to com- 
petitive* culturists. Ho foreshore has (until recently) been conceded by government, 
enabling experiments to be generally attempted or allowing shore basins to be formed 
as winter quarters for the oysters. Without concessions, case culture could not be 
attempted, and the introduction of seed oysters from Holland or Brittany has been 
forbidden on the ground that by this means oyster enemies might be introduced. 
All attempts at introducing oysters in the Baltic have been unsuccessful. The 
brackishness of its water, said to become especially marked during the early spring, 
is certainly fatal to the European species. The density in the harbor of Kiel (June 
29, 1892) averaged 1.0125 at 62° F., and at Cappeln to the northward did not become 
greater (high tide July 1) than 1.012 (02° F.). A greater degree of salinity at any 
time, even in this lower region of the Baltic, is hardly to be expected, as the fall of 
tide rarely exceeds 1 or 5 feet. 
The canal, which is now in process of construction, and will allow the water from 
the Hortli Sea to pass into the harbor of Kiel, may, it is said, have a local effect upon 
the marine life of the harbor, but can not from its size exert an important effect commer- 
cially upon oyster-culture. The change brought about in a similar way at Lijmfjord, 
in Denmark has, it is true, been an important one, but it should be remembered that 
the position of this locality is nearer the mouth of the Baltic, where the degree of 
salinity is naturally higher. Some interesting experiments have been made by the 
brothers Feddersen, of Schleswig, in introducing American oysters into the Baltic, 
hoping that this species might be readily acclimatized in fresher water. The account 
of this trial is recorded in Prometheus , Ho. 116, 1891. Analyses were made of water 
samples from the Delaware, in the neighborhood of the beds from which the American 
oysters were to be taken, and these were compared with similar analyses of Baltic 
water. The average degree of saltness in both localities was not unlike, although at 
high tide the Delaware water was considerably the more dense (sp. gr. about 1.018). 
The Feddersens caused forty barrels of oysters to be imported, were obliged to pay 
