382 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
V.— GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 
In France all attempts to introduce the American oyster have naturally failed, 
owing, as before noted, to the greater saltness of water. This condition not merely 
prevents the process of spawning, but changes entirely the character of the animal. 
The French have a general and very depreciatory idea of the American oyster, just as 
our compatriots, when traveling, are wont to look upon all French oysters as u cop- 
pery and colored with verdigris.” Our oyster is classed as a Portuguese, larger in 
size and inferior in quality on account of lack of parkage.* They can not believe 
that we have varieties of oysters, small, white, and smooth of shell, whose flavor we 
would prefer to that of the most exquisite of Belon or Marennes. 
The methods of oyster-culture employed in France must be carefully considered 
in regard to how we ourselves may profit by them. A number of their ideas appear 
undoubtedly quite pertinent to the needs of our culture. Others must require careful 
experiments to demonstrate how far they will succeed if transplanted. 
In regard to seed production, the principles will prove true with us, but unfortu- 
nately there is a stumbling-block on the practical side. With the high price of labor, 
will production pay? This is a question which I am yet inclined to answer affirma- 
tively. The French pay in general 50 cents per day for their labor. But it seems 
possible that workers, better paid and of a higher degree of activity and intelligence, 
might in the end be not far more expensive. The French have many expenses which 
we would not have to encounter, yet their production is profitable. I have even 
heard proprietors talk of supplying seed for the American market, a business affair 
which they regard as practicable, even with the great expenses and losses of trans- 
portation. 
It is certain that if we can, in favored localities of production, obtain as a steady 
average two hundred oysters per tile, the seed oyster industry might readily be 
profitable in spite of everything. As a collector it will be doubtless difficult, for the 
reasons above given, to find better than the tile. The Portuguese oyster, however, is 
said to affix more readily to rocks than tiles, a suggestion to be carefully weighed, on 
account of the kindred habits of the American oyster ; but I am strongly inclined to 
take the opposite view, after a careful examination at Rocher de Der of the rock and tile 
fragments that had taken the set side by side. With us the common tiles can be 
manufactured almost as cheaply as in France; and as the annual breakage is but 5 
per cent the loss can not be regarded as great, especially as tile fragments may again 
be utilized. Detroquage , moreover, which appears toilsome and expensive, is in reality 
a simple affair, the oysters peeling from the tile, even with a thrust of the finger-nail. It 
would be a most important point in the development of our industry to consider, as 
the French have done, the raising of seed in regions naturally favored, with a view to 
thus supplying the entire coast. This would not be impracticable. The two centers of 
production, Auray and Arcachon, supply the coast of France, and often the foreign 
market; while with us it would not be difficult to select a number of localities noted 
for seed oysters in almost every Atlantic State. If production will pay sufficiently to 
* Vide List of Works, 9. e, 49, ancl 9 a, 117. 
