The mirror., 1919-04-10
HE paper which l desire
to present for your con-
sideration under the title
or 10 ntion of S"The I'm

HgN1NgV sideration under the title
t&-Gy or caption of 1.-The Un-
opened OYSTER is simply one
which deals with the generic his
tory, organic construction and
growth of the oyster, and the
methods employed by those en-
gagged in the oyster industry in or
der to supply the market with this
product.
Let me first ask: What is an
oyster? Does it belong to the ami
NAL, fish or reptilian family! The
oyster is an animal and is placed
in that class known as ferae
naturae," or animals of wild ma
ture. The oyster family appears
to have had its origin in some i'm
perfectly known form in the latter
part of the paleozoic period, most
probably in the carboniferous era.
If this is true, it would bring them
into existence sometime between
the age of fishes and the age of
reptiles. This seems all the more
apparent since we find them more
developed in the succeeding eras.
In the triassic era they are repre-
sented by a strong plicated form,
which form becomes more promi-
nent in the jurassic and cretaceous
eras. The oyster itself is known
in the latter part of the mesozoic
period, but it attained its maxi
mum of size and abundance in the
tertiary era of the cenozoic period.
In the southeastern portions of the
United States the sandy marls of
the cenozoic period contains great
numbers of very large specimens
of oysters, especially of two spe-
cies, the "ostrea georgiana' and
the, "ostrea sellacforenes."
The oyster is a sessile. bivalve
mollusk of the family ostreidae.
The degeneration produced by
sedentary habits in all the genera
of lamellibranchia has, in the oyster
reached its most advanced stage.
The muscular projection of the
neutral surface called the foot,
whose various notifications char
acterize the different classes of
molusca is almost entirely ab-
sorbed. The two valves of the
shell are unequal in size and of
different shape, the left valve being
larger and more convex than the
right. 1t is on the left valve that,
in it's natural state, the oyster
rests; it is also the one which, in
the young, is attached to some OBJ
ject on the sea bottom. The right
valve is fiat and much smaller and
thinner than the left; in a CORES
ponding manner the right side of
the animals body is less developed
than the left; it is here that the
oyster differs from the bilateral
symmetry characteristic of lamelli-
branchia.
The species which 1 desire to
describe in full to you is that of
the "ostrea virginiana' and a brief
description of its organism will
suffice for our present purpose. 1t
has good size stomach connected
to the mouth by short gullet,
two pair of gills for breathing. an
intestine, a dark green liver, a
two-chambered heart and an ele-
mentary nervous system. 1t has
neither eyes, ears nor nose. In the
ostrea virginiana the sexes are
separate; in this respect they differ
from the species found on our Pa
cifc coast, which are hermaphro-
ditto.
1t is in the Chesapeake bay that
the ostrea virginiana are most
abundantly found. in fact Is per
cent of the total oyster yield is OBJ
tanned from that locality. The
spawning season of the oyster in
this locality is from April to Octo-
ber. The propagation of the spe-