OYSTER CULTURE IN ITALY. 669 



is highly esteemed by the Tarentians, who sell them for 15 

 to 50 centimes (f- to 2% cents) apiece. The beds near 

 which the oyster culturists of Tarente have placed their 

 collectors are situated in the large sea. It is not known 

 whether these beds are of large extent or merely small 

 aggregations ; their exact limits as well as their actual 

 situations are unknown. In the month of Way the fisher- 

 men submerge fascines about two miles from the shore to 

 serve as collectors. Stones attached to cords serve to keep 

 them down at a suitable depth in the water, and they are 

 found and recognized by means of pieces of floating cork. 

 The fascines are examined fortnightly or monthly. Those 

 which do not have a sufficient quantity of young oysters 

 upon them are returned to the water after they have been 

 cleaned of the mud that may have collected between the 

 branches, and of all parasites which may have grown there- 

 on, by leaving them exposed, for one or two days, to the 

 heat of the sun. Those, on the contrary, on which the 

 young oysters have attached themselves in large numbers, 

 are immediately transferred to the pares of the Little Sea. 

 The spawning season in the Gulf of Tarente is of ex- 

 ceptional length ; it begins early in May and does not end 

 until the close of September ; and the yield, dependent 

 upon the character of the year, may be abundant either at 

 the begining, at the middle, or at the end of this period ; 

 there is nothing fixed as regards this. Upon their arrival 

 at the pare the fascines are suspended from cords stretched 

 from one stake to another, and kept in the water at a depth 

 of one, two, or three meters (3 to 10 feet). After having 

 been there six months, the young oysters have already 

 attained a length of two or three centimeters (about an 

 inch). The time has now come to give them more space, 

 and to place them under more immediate oversight ; the 



