It sounds strange to speak of farming in the ocean, but there are many and large oyster farms all along our coast. Some of these farms are covered by water all of the time and some are uncovered when the tide is low. Oyster farms are far more profitable than are those upon which corn and wheat are raised.

This is a new industry in our country because civilized people have not lived here very long, but it is a very old one in some parts of the world. As long ago as the seventh century a Roman knight raised oysters for the market, and it is said that the business made him very wealthy.

You will understand better about the cultivation of oysters, if I tell you first how they live and grow in their natural homes.

Except during the first few days of their lives, oysters are prisoners. They cannot move about freely from place to place as fishes and most animals can, but they are attached to rocks, to the shells of their dead relatives, and to other objects. How, then, do you suppose they get their food? They grow in immense numbers, and they crowd one another more than people do in the tenement houses in our great cities. In fact most of them are soon crowded out, and they die, leaving room for the rest to grow upon their empty homes. In this way the oyster beds spread out.

These oyster beds are not found in very deep water, but rather along the shore, generally near the mouth of some river. As I have told you, they often live where they are uncovered when the tide goes out. You can see from this that it is not very difficult to gather oysters, so that, partly on this account, man has used them for food for ages.

When the Pilgrim Fathers landed on the shores of New England, they found that the Indians used oysters very commonly. All along the coast were great heaps of the shells. At the very first Thanksgiving dinner given in America, oysters were served.

Oysters used to be so plentiful on these natural beds that they were very cheap. In some places where the winter weather was cold enough to freeze the water along the shore, people cut holes in the ice and gathered them by means of long-handled rakes.

In a single year an oyster will produce more than a million young ones. Just think of it! If all of this family grew up, they would fill a room fourteen feet in each dimension.

These young oysters are very small. They are called "spat." Most of them are drifted away by waves and currents, or devoured by larger sea animals. The few that escape soon attach themselves to some object, so getting a chance to begin the battle of life.

If oysters are caught at all times of the year it does not give them a chance to produce their young, and this, as well as catching the young ones themselves, has destroyed many of the natural beds. In order to keep up the supply of this food men commenced oyster farming. You see how our daily needs and desires lead to the establishment of great industries.

The oyster farmer prepares his farm in various ways. He places clean oyster shells, stones, trays, bundles of sticks, and other things on the bottom, so that the oysters may find something to which to attach themselves. Then he places the young oysters or "spat" on these objects. When trays are used, several are placed one upon another and bound together by means of a chain. These trays are taken up from time to time in order to gather the oysters that are ready for market.

Stones are sometimes piled on the bottom and the "spat" are placed in the crevices between them. Often stakes are planted in a somewhat circular form. Cords are attached to the stakes, to which bundles of sticks are fastened in such a way as to keep them a little above the bottom. Young oysters attach themselves to these sticks, which may be drawn up when the proper time comes.

Shells are used more commonly than other things. They are taken from the restaurants and hotels to the farms in boat loads, to be scattered over the bottom.

The young oysters grow at very different rates. In two years they may grow to be six inches in length, or it may take several years to reach that size. They grow more rapidly on the artificial beds, and are better in quality also. The starfish is one of the greatest enemies of the oyster, large numbers of which it destroys every year.

During the fishing season the oyster men go to the beds in their boats and scoop the oysters up from the bottom. This is called dredging. The scoops with their loads of oysters are drawn to the deck of the boat by machinery. Sometimes the oysters are gathered by means of long tongs.

As the oysters are usually in clusters, these have to be broken up. For this purpose a sort of a hammer known as a culling iron is used. The oysters are broken apart and sorted. Sometimes the oyster man makes three grades and sometimes four.

Oysters are not the only things drawn up in the dredge. Starfish, lobsters, and various kinds of fishes are gathered in. The starfish are killed and the rest thrown back.

The oysters are heaped up in great piles on the deck of the boat. Sacks and barrels are filled with them, and many car loads are shipped daily from the cities near the fishing grounds. Chesapeake Bay is the center of the oyster industry in our country. Find it. There are oyster beds, however, all along both the Atlantic and the Pacific coasts.

Great quantities of oysters are canned near where they are caught. Getting them out of their shells is not an easy matter. For this purpose a knife is used. This work is called in the South "shucking oysters." Canning oysters is an important industry in the city of Baltimore. Have you ever seen cans of oysters that came from there?