Los Angeles daily herald., 1875-01-27
OYSTERS.

The oyster is remarkable for his fe-
cundity. According to Poll, a single
individual produces about 100000
young in a season. Other observers
increase this estimate to the enormous
number of 100000. The oyster may
be called viviparous, as the eggs, after
leaving the ovaries, are retained and
hatched within the mantle There
they swim about in whitish biscous
fiuid-myriads of them finding room
to move without jostling in a single
drop of the liquid. When the young
lings are ready to shift for themselves,
they are expelled from the parent
shell in little jets of the creamy sub
stance in which they had been era
died. In the spawning season, multi
tudes of oysters in the same bank will
emit their offspring simultaneously,
and, though each sends out but q
small quantity Of spat, the water be-
comes clouded with it. At this point
of their existence, the young oysters
are individually almost invisible. 1t
is the massing of millions that gives
color to the water and makes their
presence perceptible.
When first elected, the tiny fry are
in great danger of destruction. The
larger part are waited away by cur
rents and driven on unfavOrable
grounds, where they soon perish, or
they are devoured by fishes or other
marine animals. Each one is pro-
vided with an apparatus for swim
ming, by which it propels itself in the
water until it has found some suitable
body OH which it may fasten and begin
its growth. After it has been fixed,
the pad and ella with which it made
it's first and last journey dwindle
away, and it remains stationary for
the remainder Of its life. When it
first comes forth, the oyster is about
1-l20 Of an inch in length, and 2,00O,-
600 may be packed in the space of a
cubic inch. When month old, it is
the size of a pea. At six months of
age, it is about the size of a half-dOllar;
and ut twelve months, it has grown as
large as dollar. AT this age the
shell is marked with longitudinal
ridges or fluting; but these gradually
disappear, and when the oyster is four
or five years old, they are generally
lost altogether. In very favorable
situations, the oyster grows so rapidly
as to be fit for the table in year and
half or two years; but in ordinary
circumstances, it requires about five
years.
There are many different species, all
inhabiting the seas in warm and tenn
perate climates. Their favorite bahi-
tant is in bays and estuaries along the
coast, where the water is not very
deep. They will thrive equally well
in situations where they are constant
ly covered with water, or where they
are left dry by the ebbing tide. I'M
mense oyster beds exist on the coast
of Europe and America. The farms
of Rochelle and the isles of Re and
Oleron are famous for the quality of
their produce. Very fine oysters are
grown on SOME parts of the British
coasts. Nearly 100000 acres of
oyster beds are possessed by Virginia,
while the shores of Georgia abound in
banks of great extent.
1t is estimated that a man requires
twelve ounces of nitrogenized sub
stance for his daily nOurishment. To
furnish this supply, sixteen dozen oys-
tiers would be required. No article of
diet.is so easily digested, or contains
so little nutriment.