News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1883-11-29
SCIENCE AND TILE OYSTER
HOW ITS ENEMY DESTROYS 1T,
Some Interesting Experiments with The
BiTaivc-ArtiGciaI Culture,
From the Philadelphia Record.1

is great economic value, attracted the at
d tentlOn of scientific men Of all countries
IS and especially III this country have
: many successful experiments been made
It Professor Brooks, Of the John Hopkins
/ University, made the first successful at
: tempt in the artificial impregnation Of
g the eggs of the oyster. A single oyster
: lays about two millions of yellow eggs,
: which are found i'll the gills of the pa
I rent They soon commence to move
I aboIt by means of delicate mOtiIe fla
9 ments that almost cover them, and then
r are Matched and called fry. They are
+ ROW independent-free swimming crea-
5 lures, but shortly cease to rove about and
attach themselves to the bottom, the
shell, one-eighth Of an inch III diameter,
being easily discernible. At the end of
the first year they reproduce, but do not
attain their perfect size for three years.
, The incubation of oyster eggs is the
great business of the future, and in few
years, probably, the dealer can go TO
hatchery and order 500, 10000 sprat,
more or less. The present difficulty is
not in the fertilization but in keeping
the young alive, and to this end expert
ments are being made in various parts of
the world.
Another important question affecting
the flavor and, consequently, the sale of
the oyster is its food. Every epicure
knows the difference between Blue
Points, Shrewsbury and Virginia oysters,
and the supposition is that their food is
the cause Of the difference. Professor
Leidy, President of the Philadelphia
Academy of Science, says that the oys-
ter, probably, naturally feeds upon the
zoospores Of certain algae, such as
those of the sea cabbage (U7U0 l0ti8s5-
MAJ. This, in his opinion, might
give the animals the green color
that they often possess, particularly in
the soft parts. So many oysters have
been rejected by buyers who were afraid
Of the green tint that the matter has
been investigated by two French natural
lists, who took perfectly white oysters
and fed them upon water containing an
abundance of green microscopic plant |
(NGricuia OStre0rja), and they assumed |
the green, cOppery hue that was sup |
posed to be poisonous. Oysters are sup
posed also to contain the green coIoring |
matter of plants called chlorOphyl, found |
in number of animals. The most care
full tests were made chemically with the !
spectroscope and otherwise by various
scientific men, and in no case was the
green color traced to metallic matter or
found in any way poisonous.
''ise IT tr110, - asked tx EkIppGI'S CO.. |
panion, "that star fish roll on oyster
beds?" 81 can't swear to it," was the
reply, "but among istermen it's a gen
eral belief that sea stars get together in
punches of four or five hundred and let
the sea OF ground swell roll 'em up shore
onto the beds, where they break up and
go for the listers. They kill thousands
of bushels of EN- every year. The way
they work is to close over the shell and
turn their stOmachs inside out and suck
the critter right in. They're one Of the
worst enemies tne listers have. It's as
tonishin'," he continued, "the number
of eggs listers lays and how few grows
up. I heard gentleman say that ont OF
1000 listers about 45O lays eggs, and say
each laid !, 900, 600, we'd have forty odd
million young. But he said, on an aver
age, only 400 or SO Of these grew to per-
feet size, 50 for every lister as is eat over
1 OOO OOO III, lyiii01
Professor Mobins says the productive
ness of the oyster is 1000, 600 times
greater than that of man, but its capacity
to mature 579 times less. The European
oyster is far below its American cousin,
and about England extremely rare. In
1870 n small bed was discovered at the
mouth of the Thames, near Whitestable,
about sixty feet long and twenty wide,
vessels were anchored over the spot.
The bed is now defunct. The beds of
Cancale, on the Normandy coast, are yet
rich, though the following figures show
the same decline: In 1912 tkey yielded
60 900, 600; in 1859 the number was only
5000, coo; in 1861, 10000 900; in 1863,
1000. 900, and in 1865, 100000. A
rage for the artificial culture of oysters
swept over Europe several years ago,
promoted principally by Professor Coste,
of Paris. IN the spring Of 1853 he dis
tributed in the bay Of st. Brieux shells
and heavy fagots over Il space of 1000
hectaers Zone hectaer equals 21.4711
acres), and on these spread 100000
mother oysters. In the autumn all the
fagots were, of course, covered with
young oysters; for if these oysters were
as fruitful as the Holstein oysters there
were 1921 900 young oysters to every
square meter. The boldest expectations
were exceeded It was thought that
now the means had been found to sur
round every French coast with oyster
beds, and people already commenced to
calculate, according to the price which
oysters brought at that time, how many
millions of francs would be yielded by
this harvest of the sea. Capitalists went
into partnership with fishermen and
started artificial oyster beds, but the rich
harvest of marketable oysters failed
everywhere because the greater portion
of the young oysters had been destroyed
by quicksand or cIayey deposit, by want
Of food or by enemies. At present the
catching and raising OF young oysters is
only successfully carried on in few
places on the French coast which are
favorable for this cultivation; on a large
scale III the bay of Arcnch0n, north of |
Bordeaux. In this bay the young oys-
ters produced by mother oysters on nat
ural beds are caught on fagota. sepa-
rated from these in October. and then |
placed in hoxce and finally in artificial
ponds. In these they are protected |
against enemies by wires or nets. Once
OF twice every year they are placed in
other clean ponds, and care is taken that |
both during the coldest and warmest |
seasons they are covered by at least
twenty ccntimctrcs of water.
MoNTANA language expressive Of the |
difficulty of climbing very steep hill:
"You'll have to stick your toes into the |
face Of nature clear up to your elbows if !
You want to cross that divide"