South Wales, that most of our deep water beds are
situated in the rivers, a little way from the sea. Under
favourable circumstances there is just that commingling of
the fresh water from the river and the salt water from the
sea which produces the oyster to perfection. In times of
drought, howcA'Cr, the salt water drives out the oysters from
the deeper beds by reason of its greater density. On the
other hand, the fresh water, being the lighter, floats at the
top and enables the oysters to live in the shallower parts,
by maintaining the required 3 per cent, of salinity. It is
evide^nt from this, that the lessees have acted in direct oppo-
sition to this natural law, for they have stripped the oys-
ters from the shallow water, where they would have done
well, and laid them down on the deep beds, where the in-
creased percentage of salt water has proved too much for
them.
Dr. James C. Cox, of Sydney, the President of the
Fisheries Commission, and our best known authority on
conchology, has contributed a very valuable paper upon
" The Australian Oyster, its Cultivation and Destruction," to
the recent official work, The Fisheries of New South Wales,
already refeiTed to. A brief summary of his views will,
therefore, be full of interest. First of all, then, he sepa-
rates oysters into three classes, namely, drift oysters, mud
oysters, and rock oysters. Now, this classification must be
clearly borne in mind, as it will the better enable the reader
to understand what follows. He attributes the want of
success in our oysteries to several causes, which have not
been sufficiently heeded. One of these is that the oyster
culturists have expected that the seed oysters which they
obtained from between high and low water mark (rock
oysters) would produce drift oysters if placed on beds on
which drift oysters once throve in abundance. Dr. Cox
maintains, however, that these two kinds of oysters, the rock
160 THE ART OF LWINQ IN AUSTRALIA.
oysters and the drift oysters, are quite different, and, as it
will be seen, believes that they require different food. It
can be well understood from this, then, that rock oysters
will fail to grow on drift-oyster beds.
As to the mud oyster, he thinks very highly of it, and
regrets that it has been so ignored by our oyster culturists.
He is quite sure that if our mud oyster were cultivated and
educated as it is' now in Europe, it would be brought
to the same perfection as the European and American
oyster. It has been said of our mud oyster that it will
not keep, and will not carry ; but the same was said of its
European representative until its cultivators came to dis-
cover that by a gradual process of raising it could be
educated to keep quite long enough for all commercial
purposes.
Page 104
Presented as published in 1893. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
South Wales, that most of our deep water beds are situated in the rivers, a little way from the sea. Under favourable circumstances there is just that commingling of the fresh water from the river and the salt water from the sea which produces the oyster to perfection. In times of drought, however, the salt water drives out the oysters from the deeper beds by reason of its greater density. On the other hand, the fresh water, being the lighter, floats at the top and enables the oysters to live in the shallower parts, by maintaining the required 3 per cent, of salinity. It is evident from this, that the lessees have acted in direct opposition to this natural law, for they have stripped the oysters from the shallow water, where they would have done well, and laid them down on the deep beds, where the increased percentage of salt water has proved too much for them.
Dr. James C. Cox, of Sydney, the President of the Fisheries Commission, and our best known authority on conchology, has contributed a very valuable paper upon " The Australian Oyster, its Cultivation and Destruction," to the recent official work, The Fisheries of New South Wales, already referred to. A brief summary of his views will, therefore, be full of interest. First of all, then, he separates oysters into three classes, namely, drift oysters, mud oysters, and rock oysters. Now, this classification must be clearly borne in mind, as it will the better enable the reader to understand what follows. He attributes the want of success in our oysteries to several causes, which have not been sufficiently heeded. One of these is that the oyster culturists have expected that the seed oysters which they obtained from between high and low water mark (rock oysters) would produce drift oysters if placed on beds on which drift oysters once throve in abundance. Dr. Cox maintains, however, that these two kinds of oysters, the rock
oysters and the drift oysters, are quite different, and, as it will be seen, believes that they require different food. It can be well understood from this, then, that rock oysters will fail to grow on drift-oyster beds.
As to the mud oyster, he thinks very highly of it, and regrets that it has been so ignored by our oyster culturists. He is quite sure that if our mud oyster were cultivated and educated as it is' now in Europe, it would be brought to the same perfection as the European and American oyster. It has been said of our mud oyster that it will not keep, and will not carry ; but the same was said of its European representative until its cultivators came to discover that by a gradual process of raising it could be educated to keep quite long enough for all commercial purposes.