Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1897-03-24
LUSCIOUS BIYALVE.
now TT ~ RAISED IN THE boi-
TOM OF THE BRINY.
FACTS ABOUT OYSTER FARMING
Sowing the Seed on Long isia""
Sound AMI TranSpInntinG the BABY
ovsters to the Connecticut shores
to Fatfcn.
eva shlngton Post)

ture which Is designed for the instruction
of everyday people in the business OF
propagating and rearing the most luscious
of mollusks by artifce. It's purpose VIII
he TO encourage this sort Of farming
which is destined within fifty years to
develop into one Of the greatest indus
tries in this country. Up TO now the wild
crop Of oysters furnished by our bays
and estuaries has been relied on almost
wholly for the market supply; but indi-
cations already point to the speedy eX-
termination Of the untamed bivalye In
a commercial sense, and in the near fu-
ture the scientific breeder will produce
the oysters that are consumed by lovers
Of this marine esculent. The time IS soon
coming when Chesapeake bay will yield
$4,000 worth Of oysters yearly IN
stead of 100000 worth which are gath
cred annually at present This bay IS
one of the richest agricultural regions OF
the earth, the fertility Of its bottom be-
ing comparable only TO that Of the val
leys of the Nile and Ganges; but it is
adapted for only one crop-the oyster.
The business Of oyster culture has al
ready been carried TO high point of de-
velopment I'm Long Island sound, where
artificial breeding has taken the place Of
the old method almost entirely. In fact,
nearly one third of the bottom Of that
great arm OF the sea Is occupied at pres
ent by oyster-beds, the product Of which
is derived from the sowing Of seed, and
as regularly harvested as any land crop.
All sub-aqueous farming rights are held
not I'm fee, but by lease from the State,
and the grounds are guarded by special
police 10 prevent pOaching. There are
72O00 acres of beds under cultivation,
some Of them being as much as eight
miles from shore, and at a depth of more
than eighty feet Unquestionably, the
whole bottom of the sound would be one
great oyster-bed within a few years from
now were it not that propagation is not
found successful on the Long Island
shore.
TRANSATLANTIC IS PROFITABLE.
Nobody knows why this should be so.
but 1t is imagined that currents or winds
may be unsuitable, carrying away the
newly-hatched baby oysters when they
arc as yet in the fr0e-Swimming stage, so
that 1t is hard 70 get a "set" of "spat,"
a. the infant mollusks are termed. A
trouble that Is annoying the Connecticut
farmers just now is the unsatisfactory
growth of their oysters. In beds where
the bivalves used to reach marketable
size I'm four years, they now require five
or six years. This is another mystery.
but the reason probably IS that the oys-
ters nowadays are so much more hume
rous than formerly that there is not
enough food 10 go around. Consequently.
also, trey do not fatten as they should.
OF course, the oyster has no fat IN the
ordinary sense, but with plenty TO eat it
stores up reserve OF protoplastic mat
ter, which improves its flavor and adds
to It's nutritive quality.
Now, just here comes in a very Curl
Gus fact. These thin Connecticut oys-
tiers, taken up and planted Off the Long
Island shore Of the sound, fatten up in
a wonderful way-at such rate, in fact,
that it pays 20 carry them across replant
them and dredge them up again after
little while. The bottom along the south
shore is muddy, and contains lots of oys-
ter food, such as diatoms and other small
vegetable organism, spores of marine
algae, and animalculae. Animal as well
as vegetable matter contributes TO the
diet Of this mollusk, which is a much
more complicated creature than most peo-
pie suppose. 1t has a heart a liver an
intestinal canal, and a system Of nerves
with a centre. which is TO all intents and
purposes a brain. What Is commonly
called the heart of the oyster, how
ever, IS not such at all, but merely the
big muscle by which the creature attaches
itself to the shell.
HABITS OF THE BIVALVE.
The cultivation of the oyster is OK
tremely simple, depending in practice
upon a little knowledge of its life his
tory. Naturalsts say that 1t was not
always a sedentary animal. Ages ago
the ancestors Of the oysters Of to-day
were disposed TO locomotion. and wan
dered about in search Of food. Thus ID
happens at the present time that oysters
in the earliest stage OF their being pur-
sue the old habit, swimming by means
Of hair-like appendages. When newly
Matched they swarm at the surface Of
the water, often in such numbers that
one small fish might swallow I'm q few
gulps as many Of them as would equal
numerically a years catch In the Chesa-
peake. SO great are the dangers to which
it is exposed at this period that the baby
mollusk has less than one chance in
I 900. 600 in surviving. IF II does survive
il quits its vagabond life at the end of
five or six days, and seeks a rock or
other suitable place 20 attach itself per-
manently, always lying on its left side
Then IL proceeds 10 grow rapidly, at
tanning the length Of an inch and q half
in the first year Of its life.
The oyster-farmer watches for the
time when the mollusks are beginning to
SHAWN. and then deposits on the bottom
q quantity OF clean shells or stone broken
into small bits. Under favorable cir
cumstances the young oysters attach
themselves TO this "cultch," as It isi
called. I'm great numbers. Oyster-shels
do not make 1rst-rate oultch because so
many OF the infant oysters will occupy
one shell as 20 crowd each other as
they grow, thus assuming distorted
shapes. Nothing is better for the pur-
mise than the fragile "jingle" shells.
which are obtained in great quantities
bv dredging. As the oysters grow the
ilngles break into bits, and each oyster
Is left free to assume a symmetrical de-
velopment. After q few months, some
times a year, the young oysters are taken
I'D and sold for seed" to be planted in
beds for growing to marketable size.
FOES OF THE OYSTER.
Even after the oyster has attached IL.
self and grown a shell for its protection,
IL is a prey 10 many foes. Worst Of these
lis The starhsh. which comes In Yeritable
armies, literally wiping out great areas OF
beds. The starfish embraces the oyster
with it's five long fingers and smothers il
to death, thereupon drawing the mOllusk
out Of it's opened shell and devourlng 1t.
Almost as bad ara certain species OF
whelks. which drill holes through the
shells Of the oysters and thus get at them
Then there are large spiral "winkles,"
which crush the oysters ~ muscular
,ra-ut1ra In southern WATERS and on the
Pacific coast schools Of stingrays raid the
beds These fishes are provided with a
crushing apparatus IN their mouths, with
which they smash the oysters, so that a
bed attacked by them looks, after the tide
goes out. like a field that has been rooted
by hogs. Much damage is done by mus
sells. which overgrow the oysters, wedging