112 THE OYSTER. 



the spawning season, whether there was any bed of 

 oysters in the immediate neighborhood or not. In 

 other words, that there was hardly any limit to the time 

 and distance the spat would drift with the tides, winds 

 and currents. I think that lately this view has been 

 modified by most fishermen, and I am certain it greatly 

 needs modification ; but, as a consequence of the 

 opinion, it was believed that one place was as good as 

 another, so long as there was a good current or tideway 

 there, to spread shells for spawn, whether there were 

 any living oysters in proximity or not. But that this 

 view was fallacious, and that many acres of shells have 

 never exhibited a single oyster, simply because there 

 was no spat or sources of spat in their vicinity, there is 

 no reason to doubt. 



' Having learned this, planters began to see that they 

 must place with or near their beds of shells living 

 mother-oyster, called ' spawners/ which should supply 

 the desired spat. This is done in two ways either by 

 laying a narrow bed of old oysters across the tideway 

 in the center of the shelled tract, so that the spawn, as 

 it is emitted, may be carried up and down over the 

 breadth of shells waiting to accommodate it, or by 

 sprinkling spawners all about the ground, at the rate 

 of about ten bushels to the acre. Under these arrange- 

 ments, the circumstances must be rare and exceptional 

 when a full set will not be secured upon all shells 

 within, say twenty rods of the spawners. Of course 

 fortunate positions may be found where spawn is pro- 

 duced in abundance from wild oysters, or from con- 



