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Show OYSTERS FORCED TO WORK Japanese Scientist Conceives Idea of "Teaching" Bivalves to Produce Pro-duce Pearls. The Japanese conduct great oyster farms where the bivalves are "taught" to make pearls. It was Doctor Mlkl-noto, Mlkl-noto, a well-known scientist, who conceived the idea that oysters might be educated and made to work for man. After many years of costly experimentation experi-mentation he discovered the method In use today. The farm has an area of about 50 square miles and the water varies in depth from 5 to 15 fathoms. The farmer farm-er selects the spots where the larvae of oysters are most numerous and then he plants small rocks and stones. These are soon covered with oyster-spat. oyster-spat. They are then removed and placed in special beds, where they lie undisturbed until the third year. It is said that an oyster will not produce pro-duce a pearl unless it be irritated by some foreign substance. As soon as it feels this it proceeds to cover It with nacre, layer on layer, until after a few years it has made a pearl. When large enough the oysters are taken from their beds and carefully opened ; a tiny speck of some foreign substance is Introduced In-troduced into their bodies, and they are replaced in the sea. By the end of . from three to five years the oyster has coated the foreign substance with nacre and this has become a pearl. |