16 BULLETIN 740, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
oysters before and after washing with the regular water current and 
air agitation for 30 minutes. 
Experiment 12 .—This experiment is of the same nature as the 
preceding one, simply measurement and analysis of a commercial 
shipment before and after washing with regular water current and 
air agitation. 
Experiment 13 .—This experiment was carried out in the same 
manner as was Experiment 12, except that enough dairy salt was 
added to the wash water to make the salinity of the solution 2.53 
per cent. The water over the beds where the oysters were grown 
varied from 2.48 to 2.70 per cent salinity, so no osmosis should take 
place. The object of this experiment was to test the correctness of 
the belief commonly held that all the salt must be washed out of 
oysters to have them “keep.” It has been observed since the 
beginning of the industry that oysters tended to spoil if the salt was 
not washed out to below the point where it could be tasted in the 
water; hence the spoiling was connected with the salinity. This 
phenomenon appears to be merely a coincidence, due to the fact 
that the putrefactive bacteria are washed out at about the same rate 
as is the salt. 
Experiment H .—The oysters in this experiment were washed upon 
a skimmer with a hose for 10 minutes, and were stirred constantly 
with a paddle. 
Experiment 15 .—In this experiment the oysters were washed in a 
regular agitation tank by the regular method, except that instead of 
being constantly agitated by a current of air they were stirred every 
5 minutes with a large metal paddle. Thus, the oysters were affected 
by a constant stream of cold water from the bottom of the tank, and 
were thoroughly agitated six times during the experiment. 
