392 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
tration shows, is filled with wire gauze cases (3 feet 6 inches by 3 feet G inches by 2 
feet G inches), in transverse rows of sixteen. Each case contains no less than three 
or four trays of 300 to 400 oysters each. The cultural processes appear to be simple, 
consisting merely in rinsing sediment from the trays and allowing the muddy water 
then to be flooded out. The loss of young oysters during the first year is said to be 
considerable, amounting to almost 25 per cent, a mortality for which no doubt the 
settling of a heavy sediment is partly responsible. 
Belgium, in summary, represents the oyster industry in but little more than a 
single stage — that of conditioning or fattening. Production is not attempted, there 
are no natural oyster banks, and the sediment-bearing character of the water would, 
it seems probable, be greatly adverse to this branch of culture. The natural richness 
of the feeding conditions of the Ostend waters is due, it appears to the writer, to a 
favorable density of the water (about 1.022 to 1.023), together with the remarkable rich- 
ness of the incurrent canal water in the food stuff upon which the oyster food organisms 
multiply rapidly. This, attested by the remarkable number of oysters that are quickly 
conditioned in a given water volume, has (1) allowed Ostend to become a depot and 
center of supply of almost every grade of foreign oysters, and (2) permitted the condi- 
tioning to be carried on within a small area. Private property, therefore, has come 
into use instead of state concessions, and brings with it rights of permanence and 
freedom from conditions. 
Independence in the management of each establishment seems to have been under 
the local conditions naturally developed and very successful. The governmental 
action in whatever has been done, has, accordingly, aimed merely to favor, as far 
as possible, the making of private property valuable for culture. The new canal, 
projected by the authorities,* will thus directly benefit the adjoining properties and 
will, thereafter, from the economic side, become of state importance. 
Bull. Mens, de 1’ as. com., mar., ind., et agr. d’Osteude, Apr., 1892, p. 206. 
