The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-04-24 00:00:00

FISH CULTURE.

Some interesting statements were made at the
ninth annual meeting of the American Fish-Cultural
Association,_' which was held at New York on the
last two days of March. Mr. Roosevelt, the
president, gave an account of the success of some
recent attempts to cross several varieties of fish. He
observed that all hybrids were usually more shy and
wild than either. of their parents, and that in appoar-
ance they generally favoured their larger parent. The
cross between the brook trout and California salmon
awl the, salmon trout and brook trout bade fair to be
fine fish. The cross of the shad and herring, though
not made under the most favourable circumstances,
had done well. The number of combinations possible
was very large. Dr. Livingston Stone, 'United States
Assistant-Commisioner of Fisheries, read a paper on
the transportation of fish. He noticed the necessity of
constant renewal of the atmosphereand aeration of the
water in which they were carried, but said that no
amount of aeration would overcome the fatal effects of
crowding. Professor W. K. Brooks read a paper on
the propagation of the oyster. He said European
observers held that the oyster carried its young in the
shell, but this was not true of the American oyster.
He had spent the summer at Christfield, in Ifaryland,
the head-quarters of the oyster-canning business, and
by microscopic examinations extending over several
months he had discovered how the oyster bred, and
witnessed each stage of the development of the em-
bryo. He thought there would be no more difficulty
in grtificially propagating the oyster than in propa-
gating other fish.

Upon the subject of Oyster Cultivation the Evening
Standard remarks :

A very interesting paper on the cultivation of
oysters was read the other day before the Fishcultural
Association in New York, and some of the statements
made by an accepted authority are certainly sur-
prising. According to the very confident assertions
of the lecturer, Professor W. K. Brooks, the soience
of life is differently carried out by English oysters
and their - American cousins. Their chief know-
ledge of oyster reproduction, said Professor Brooks,
had been derived from the stu,dies of European
observers, who are agreed that the oyster carries
its young in the shell. If that were true of the
European oyster, it was not of the American
oyster. This he had discovered beyond the possibility'
of doubt by a long series of examinations made of
oysters during the breeding season. He had spent
the summer at Christfield, in Maryland, which was
the headquarters of the oyster-canning business. Here
he had found, by miscroscopic examinations extending
through several months, that the American oyster does
not breed in the same way as the European, and he
has been fortunate in discovering how it does, breed.
Mr. Gladstone has told us how much behind the
Americans we are in many things, but we
did not think that the reproach extended to our
oysters, as seems unhappily to be the case. The
number of eggs that the average American oyster
would lay at one time, Professor Brooks had carefully
ascertained, was 6,000,000 or B,ooo,ooo—in fact, in-
numerable; and we fear it would be impossible to
maintain that the average English oyster is capable of
anything like such exertions. If she were, it is pain-
fully evident that few Of her progeny reach an age of
discretion, that is to say, an age at which they may
be discreetly eaten. Their growth appears to be a
marvellously rapid one. In from 24 to 36 hours after
the fertilisation of the egg, the youthful oyster takes
food into his stomach and proceeds rapidly. to
qualify himself for his fate. Professor Brooks
explained a subject which possibly is not very generally
understood—the reason why oysters may not be
eaten in months which lack the letter " IL"
These are the breeding months, and the female
oysters are full of eggs. Towards the end of the
meeting the Professor was asked whether he deliberately
held that European observers had made a mistake in
asserting that the oyster carried its young in the shell.
This question was one which the Professor did not
seem to care to answer. 'He said "they were highly
scientific men, not likely to be mistaken; that perhaps
the European oyster was different, yet it was strange
that it should be." It would be satisfactory to hear
what Mr. Frank Bucldand has to say:on the subject.