Forest and Stream, August 30, 1883

THE OYSTER PROBLEM SOLVED.

Sea -- Shellfish - Oystering : Other

MR. J. A. RYDER, a special assistant of the U. S. Fish Commission, announces that he has successfully reared the American oyster from the egg at Stockton, Worcester county, Md., on the grounds of the Eastern Shore Oyster Company, during the past summer, Messrs. H. H. Pierce and Geo. V. Shepard, of the above firm, kindly placing all facilities at the disposal of Mr. Ryder for carrying out his work and afterward continuing the experiments under his direction.

The apparatus was as simple as could possibly be devised in order to insure success, and was perfectly automatic in its action. A pond was excavated in the salt march, near the shore of Chincoteague Bay, and connected with the latter by a trench about ten feet long, two feet wide and three feet deep. Before the water was let into the pond a wooden diaphragm, made with perforated boards lined with gunny cloth and filled with clean beach sand, was placed in the ditch and so secured that absolutely no water could get into the pond from the bay except such as filtered through this diaphragm. The rise and fall of the tide alone was depended upon to change the water in the pond, and it was found to rise and fall from four to six inches during every tide, ebbing and flowing slowly through the diaphragm. The rise and fall was found not to be as great in the pond as in the open bay, but was sufficient, as the sequel has shown. The inclosure so arranged constituted the whole of the apparatus, if it could be called such, designed to confine the artificially fertilized spawn.

The spawn was taken from the adults by a method originally devised by Mr. Ryder, and already described in various published reports and papers. After the spawn was taken it was allowed to stand in pails with an abundance of clean water for a period of three to five hours, so as to give the oyster eggs a chance to develop to the swimming condition. It was then poured into the pond or inclosure at various points to insure its effectual distribution through the water. Stakes were then driven into the bottom of the pond, to which dead oyster shells were suspended on wire; the stakes put down at different dates being marked so as to distinguish them apart. The suspended oyster shells were introduced so as to afford the young fry clean surfaces to which they could fix themselves. The first spawn and shell collectors were put into the pond July 7, and some of the shells were found by Mr. Pierce, on Aug. 22 just past, to have spat attached ranging from a fourth to three-fourths of an inch in diameter. Some samples of these young oysters are now in Mr. Ryder's possession, proving conclusively that oysters may be reared in inclosed ponds such as here described, in which it has also been found that the natural food of the animal is produced in vast quantity.

This experiment has been so conducted as to preclude any doubt that the spat obtained has been derived from any source except that of the spawn artificially fertilized and introduced into the inclosure. It also marks the most important step that has yet been made in this country in oyster culture. The methods are likewise so simple that they are available in the hands of unskilled persons. A full description of the methods pursued will shortly be published in the Reports of the U. S. Fish Commission.