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REAL VS. NOT-SO-REAL
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309
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The
cultured pearl is, like the natural pearl, the product of a living
organism, though its beginning was false. This organism may be
irritated or stimulated in such a manner as to bring about certain
desired results, but it is by no means a foregone conclusion that these
will come up to expectation. In fact, as I have said, we know they do
not. Color, shape, luster, and cleanness cannot be predetermined. They
are, in the cultured pearl, no less than in the natural, conditioned by
factors of which we know nothing and over which we have therefore no
control.
Perfection
in all of these combined qualities cannot possibly occur oftener in the
cultured than in the natural pearl because, as we have seen, their
causes are not amenable to man's discipline. The secrets of their
shape and beauty are perhaps the secrets of the whole sea-floor; every
force at Neptune's command may be brought to bear, temperately and
kindly, upon these supremely lovely children of ocean. No
culture-station could ever reproduce intentionally the collaboration of
forces that go to the making of a single perfect pearl. So far as the
Japanese cultured pearl is concerned, this is illustrated by the fact
that no science whatever could make an oyster of the variety found in
Japanese waters reproduce a pearl of quality and orient to compare with
those from the Persian Gulf. Natural or cultured pearls fished from any
particular locality must always bear—as I have explained already—their
birth certificate on their face.
Again,
the Japanese lingah is as subject to the ravages of the starfish, the
boring whelk, and other pests as are pearl-oysters in other parts of
the world. Moreover, an epidemic of some kind or a ruthless typhoon may
any day destroy some, if not all, of the culture-beds at a blow. This
has happened elsewhere to natural pearl-beds, and why should it not
happen in Japan, in spite of the many years' work and thought that are
lavished upon the artificial grounds?
In
pearls of small size, the Japanese culture-stations cannot, in any
case, compete with the pearl-fisheries, whose output in small pearls is
obtainable at nrices at which culture-stations
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