Oysters.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2030, 11 July 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

Oysters.

It may not be generally known that accordiug to observations made by Profe3?or Rica at the Cold Spring hatchery, a healthy, well fed oyster, the surroundings being favorable, will lay 12S 000,000 egga. Oi the number that acquire a shell the percentage ia very small, bat nearly all tho finny tiibo are as fond cf oyster eg b 'rf a3 is roan of tho mature bivalve. Being left to shift for themselves, they are devoured by the million before the protecting ehell is formed. Tho egg3 hatjh in Ices than a day, often taking no longer than four hours, and when hatched they are frco to swim and roam at will, but in a few days, usually four, they begin to lound up and tako the shapa of a clam. At this stage they tettlo on convenient objects, such as rooks, pieces of iron, clam or oyster shells, and in fact on anything that may bo on the bottom. This is the ond of tho young oyster's freedom, as where it fettles there it remains until torn off to be transplanted in the oyeterman'a beds. Cut man is not the only euemy of the oyster, as tho fltar fish lives on oyotprrf all the year loand. It3 ruode of opening ia a somewhat novel way of sucking oysters. Sdtlling down bodily on the young or old oyster, with its fife long armj arranged around thu edge of the fl ell in such a way that tht- moment the oyster opens itj mouth to breatho or feed the star l\i\\ mj^etrf if juice into tho opeuing, which kilh the occupant of the ehell in a short time. Then commences tho fouat on a raw oyi ter. Tho presence of the fish and his dosigns are well understood by tho ojater, which will keep aa clo^e as a dam for aa long as a weok or eight dajH. Tno other enemy, and probably tho most destiuotivd of the t.vo, is the drill, a small worm /ike snail, that is deposited on the shell, m the torm of an eg.,', which as uoon a i i it is hatched begins boring its way in to tho unfaU pectin^ occupiint. The atory is soon told when oiico through the peiuly pti'imcl of the atony armor ot tho other \vigo defenceless oyater. A^ain, according to the profane attidavit of an Eastern Shore oyoter man, Bnappars and turtles are tho sneak thio\ps of tho oyster beds, whos9 method ii different from the bird9 or fowls, which catch tho oyster, and rising to a sulliaient height in the ait chop the oyster on the r,ooka, then follow and partake of an oyster hinh. The snapper is not bo flighty, but works and carries tho oyster to land, where he leaves it to die from exposure, and then calls around and gets a meal good enough for anything that takes such a mean advantage of a defenceless mollusk. — Si'iriitijic Anwrii'iin.

" Love begets love," sings the old song, but how are you going to reconcile that with the homcopathic'o claim that like cures liko ?—? — Rockland Courier*