Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 20.djvu/166

154 mouths of creeks or rivers, and not distant from beds already known. They generally exist as long, narrow ridges, very thickly stocked and having their greatest dimension in the direction of the current. Those areas where the bottom is sticky and the change from deep water sudden are most likely to reward a search.

The extension of the old beds can be effected by depositing suitable "cultch" upon the bottoms contiguous to the bed, and thus afford a place for the attachment of the drifting "spat." Stones, ballast, old pieces of earthenware, water-pipes, and old shells form excellent cultch, and, if any of these are scattered about the beds, a good catch may be confidently expected. Care must be taken to deposit the cultch upon those bottoms sufficiently consistent to support it, and also to make the deposit upon such areas as lie in the direction of the tidal currents, so that the young brood, rising from the natural beds, may be carried over the newly exposed cultch. If a number of mature oysters are deposited with the shells, they will materially assist in the extension of the beds. The cultch should be exposed late in the spring, so as to insure its cleanliness, as that is very desirable.

The consumption of the oyster is constantly increasing, and as the demand increases so will the disposition to fish the beds, and, should there be any failure of the supply, the increased price consequent upon that failure will induce even more exhaustive fishery; and it will become so great, if it has not already, that only strict protective laws, rigidly enforced, will be sufficient to protect the beds, and prevent the destruction of the industry.

There is, however, another means of maintaining the fecundity of the beds, which merits consideration.

During the summer of 1879, Professor W. K. Brooks was successful in securing, by artificial means, the fertilization of the eggs of the female, and in protecting the offspring for some time. Though, owing to various unforeseen combinations of natural causes, and to the accidents incidental to all tentative work, he has not been successful in maintaining the embryos until such a time as they could be deposited upon the beds with a certainty of survival, yet he has accomplished sufficient to show that the impregnation of the female cells can be easily and certainly achieved by a very simple process; and, as probably the greatest loss of the young is due to the failure of the ova to meet the male fluid at the proper time, any method which will insure such contact and protect the embryos, for even a limited period, is of great value, and well worthy of the attention of those interested in the preservation of the oyster-fishery.

Any protection afforded the young oyster assures the maturity of a greater number, and, as the beds are failing from a want of reproduction, due to the absence of mature oysters, any method which will insure the maturity of an abnormal number should be brought, if possible, to a point of practical benefit.