404 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
The phase of European oyster-culture that lias as yet no equivalent with us at home 
is that of the extreme value of land at particular points. Competition in these 
favored localities has added in various ways to the area of production and culture. 
Laud is made by the macadamizing of soft and useless tracts; a higher zone of the 
beach is utilized by tidal inclosures ; wire cases raise the oyster from the muddy bottom 
and protect it from its enemies; and in Italy vertical culture is even resorted to in a 
very extraordinary way. (See page 360.) 
The general need in the United States for area in which to extend oyster-culture 
can hardly be regarded as immediate. At points, however, where the local cultural 
conditions are exceedingly favorable to rapid growth or fattening, it would seem 
a practical measure to bring into cultivation extended shore strips near the zone of 
low- water mark by the use of tidal parks of the least costly type.* In regions where 
softness of bottom and richness in the oyster’s feeding conditions are noteworthy, the 
use of case culture is most strongly to be recommended, from its practical value. 
Culture in claires is easily understood;! its results in giving a special and delicate 
flavor to the oyster should commend it to culturists. 
Significant, although perhaps not strictly logical, deductions may be drawn as to 
the way in which different action on the part of different governments has affected 
the prosperity of oyster-culture; the granting of concessions, the terms of tenure, 
the preserving of the natural grounds, interference or non-interference, have undoubt-' 
edly exerted much influence in developing or retarding the industry, although it is 
clearly to be understood that only the most general inferences can be drawn on 
account of altered conditions, e. g ., of climate. In the accompanying table (p. 406) a 
brief contrast has been attempted. It will be seen that in those countries alone where 
government has absolutely preserved supplies of spawning oysters does seed-culture 
flourish . The permanent closure of a small natural oyster-bearing area has apparently 
done what has not been done by a close season of the r-less months. The latter course, 
as argued by Prof. Huxley, J does not prevent the dredgers from exhausting the banks 
before the spawning seasons begins; and Prof. Hubrecht§ notes that for similar 
reasons the close seasons might equally well be during the winter as during the 
summer. 
That absolute reservation of oyster-bearing land will have an immediate and 
important influence upon the production of seed in neighboring areas is a proposition 
which European experience seems to demonstrate; and the writer would suggest, as 
in his former report, that the matter of reservation seems far more pertinent to the 
needs of the American industry than any attempts at artificial production. Nor 
would the reservation of such a tract be an impracticable matter, at any rate as an experi- 
ment, and if its importance could be shown in a region where the seed industry has 
been prosperous and is now depleted, a government experimental control might give 
place to permanent measures on the part of individual State, or of local authority. If 
the importance of this question could, by experiment, be demonstrated clearly and 
practically, the culturists themselves would become the most actively interested in the 
matter. The normal quantity of spat is in direct proportion to- the number of spawning 
oysters in the neighborhood , and, although this fact may be clearly recognized, the 
* U. S. F. C. Bull.. 1890, p. 376. t Loc. cit., p. 376. 1 Lecture on the Oyster, May, 1884. 
§ Int. Fisli. Expos., Prize Essay, 1884, iu Philpots, loc. cit., p. 702. 
