THE OYSTER. 



109 



survived are large enough to sell, when the bed is 

 worked at first, probably, with tongs and rakes, get- 

 ting up the thickest of the crop. This done, dredges 

 are put on, and everything that remains oysters, 

 shells and trash is removed and the ground left 

 clean, ready for a second shelling, or to be planted \vith 

 seed. 



' In the process of growth of the young oysters 

 lodged upon the fields of cultch, when left undis- 

 turbed, there is, and must of necessity be, a great 

 waste under the most favorable circumstances. Leav- 

 ing out all other adversities, this will arise from over- 

 crowding. More ' blisters ' attach themselves upon a 

 single shell than can come to maturity. One or a few 

 will obtain an accession of growth over the rest, and 

 crowd the others down, or overlap them fatally. Even 

 if a large number of young oysters attached to a sin- 

 gle stool do grow up together equally, their close 

 elbowing of one another will probably result in a 

 closed, crabbed bunch of long, slim unshapely sam- 

 ples, of no value save to be shucked. To avoid these 

 misfortunes, and, having got a large quantity of young 

 growth, to save as much as possible of it, the more 

 advanced and energetic of the planters, like the Hoyts, 

 of Norwalk, pursue the following plan : When the 

 bed is two years old, by which time all the young oys- 

 ters are of sufficient age and hardiness to bear the 

 removal, coarse-netted dredges are put on, and all the 

 bunches of oysters are taken up, knocked to pieces, 

 and either sold as ' seed,' or redistributed over a new 



