The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1880-09-21 00:00:00

OYM2IIB.

The oyster is most intolerant of cold and very tolerant
of heat. There are no oyetors in the Arctic seise; In all
tropical acts they abound, but are not always edible. In
the winter seasons owner, of oyster laying' watch the
weather most carefully, shifting crystere from the foreshore
Into deep water, for if the frost ciatelvs them it nips them
op. Particiderly dangerous are also the flied. from melt-d
Mow, and as fresh river water alone I, sufacient to kill
oysters, 5, much more so are they in danger if the tern-
re Ls reduced by melting ice or snow. Hence it
ppsna fr-qeently that valuable laying, of oysters have
been destroyed boomse they were placed too high
up creeks where the land waters were too powerful
for the flowitur tide to dilute them. This greet abhorrence
of cold on the part of high-bred oysters, sorb as wive.,
Is in my opinion one of the principal GLIM,- of their present
h:gh price. Of Late years the stammer, have been very cold
and si dough the water may perchanee have "Abseiled to •
certain amount of hest, yet the cold night' knock all the
warmth out of it again. Above all is it necessary for • tall
of spot that the temperature should not jump up and
down, but boa equable ss poa4ble. The young oysters
cannot help being born, and when born they must tag.
their chance of the weather. If it is cold they die ;ifit is
warm, and they are lucky enough to and cradles In the
form of " colds" suited for them, they hold on a, tight ea
barnacles and have • chance of living. The manner by
means of which this adhesion of the young oyster tattoo
place is not at all known. It appears to be that there is
no actual colts,glll, Ira, that the adherence takes place by
the "attraction of cohesion." These baby oysters are
whimsical in their tastes. I have a collection to show the
substance" which they prefer; if in • sticking humour
they will adhere to almoit anything; but what they like
best is certainly cleats cockle shells, end the empty shells
of their ancestors and relations. It grieves me much to see
beautiful clean cackle shell. crashed up t, form garden
paths. ant more especially do I consider It • very great
waste for the oyster shops to throw iuto the tub the shells
of the oyster, that have been opened at the her.
Froio the shop they go to the dust-bin, where they do no
goo I whatever; If collected and put back into the sea
they would form, ebove all things, the best form of celch
to attract young oysters; in fact, the empty oyst I' shells
should (so to speak), be sent bug to favourable breeding
ground. in the sea to be refill,el with young oysters. As I
have stated before, cold is fatal to young oysters; it is no
use disputing this, and the results of experiments I have
made will, I think, render it positive. I placed in the
middle of the spatting se Akin soveral oysters in the sun.
Shortly they began te gape. Finding • mother oyster con-
! taming spat, I weig,d opera her shells and shook the spat
' out of her, thus to avoid any injury that might ensue front
the use of the liyatar-knife. I then placed • certain pro-
p wtion of I ',Mg spats into • test-tube containing •
delicate thermometer. When the water In the teet-tube
was warmed by the sun up to a certain temperature, the
oysters come to the surface and played about like " merry-
go-round' beetles on dunk-ponds. or 0111.3 they veered from
the bottom upward. with a tremulous motion not unlike
that of a lalk its full sem un a fine spring morning.—laa.sx
BUCKLAXD.