| Show THE HISTORY AND HABITS OF THE OYSTER the life history oyster Is in many ways and its happy knack ot turning calami 3 into pearls 0 great price the S byj does this in the most natural i the world layf whenever an enemy breah through to stabs it in the darko injures it in any fashion the covers the blvain injury over with the ful pearl beaubi which we so much be afterward admire worn as a medal rough coat on i the chinese by Insert J fa small metal images between sl of living oysters employ them to these over with mother of co pearl A foreign material introduced between shells if it cannot be rejected is treated in this way indeed eo auls that a email fish has been known form the k nucleus of a pearl in spring the oyster la found to tain a large coa quantity of a milk fluid which under the whit microscope 1 shown to be its almost invisible I 1 ega although numbering about a million they remain within the animal und hatched when the tiny oysters are abroad in such numbers that they gent the vater like cloua a mist at athla they aro expert swimmers and tas cr different parent in haban and appearance imagine a rest lei speck of soft matter with appliances and you have a tol erab notion of an oysters appearance early life after awhile the in are discarded 1 or rather absorbed instead of roving through the sea anar thoai spat take up their permanent j on its bottom at the age of two 1 they are no bigger than a ecat prow to the size of a pea in three months and reach their prime in about live years the young oysters are especially sub feet to the attacks of toes and it 3 hopeless attempting to rear them in an exposed place where there are currents as they will be carried to sea or cut upon rock and sand and so perish artificial beds of various kinds have beba tried such as stones together stakes driven into the ground ami boards laid thereon but nothing 3 found to answer so well as atlea covell with cement this gives a suitable sur face with the advantage that the ce ment Is unfavorable to the growth ct seaweeds the adult oyster might bt thought impervious to the assaults 0 marine enemies shut up as it Is within the massive walls of its fortress yet strangely enough it often becomes th victim of such a comparatively soft tal i low as the starfish although the starfish prefers spat which can be lowed without much difficulty he never hesitates about entering on a life acif death struggle with a full grown ayi ter the starfish embraces the oysters in his arms and when he finds that haj victim cannot be taken into his stomach he proceeds to put his stomach into idaj victim it Is supposed that he pours stupefying fluid into the oyster at thi same time tor without apparent re sl stance he accomplishes his object j oysters are found nearly all over the I 1 world some of other countries grolln grow ln to be giants nearly a toot broad thea vary in quality as much as they do in size british oysters are at least eaul to any other and the romans who were among the best of judges the highest character to those of butu or lUch borough on the coast ot kent s t the territory devoted to rice in loc sj illana for the present year will aagre atte acres with a crop of 2000 sacks of rough rice or pounds of the cleaned grain 0 O |
