764 OYSTER.S, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



. . . . In portions of Long Island Sound, especi- 

 ally off New Haven, it has been needful to make a crust or 

 artificial surface upon the mud, before laying down the 

 shells. This is done with sand. 



. . . . I (Ingersoll) quote from the " Report of 

 the Shell-Fish Commissioners" of Connecticut, for 1882, 

 the following account of the method of cultivating a pri- 

 vate farm in that State. I also quote from their -report for 

 1883 the following statement of the present condition of 

 the industry: 



" The deep-water cultivators proceed in three different 

 ways to make beds. (i.) The bottom being properly 

 cleared off, the seed oysters, mixed with the gravel, 

 jingles, and other shells, just as they are gathered from the 

 natural beds, are distributed thereon more or less uniformly, 

 and there left to grow. (2.) Or the bottom is spread over 

 with clean oyster shells just before the spawning season 

 begins, and brood oysters, twenty-five bushels to the acre, 

 are distributed over the bed. (3.) Or, if the bed is in the 

 neighbourhood of natural beds, the shelled bed is left 

 without further preparation to catch the spawn as it is 

 drifted above it. Sometimes the shells fail to ' catch a 

 set,' and this makes it necessary to rake over the shells the 

 following year, or to cover them over with more fresh 

 shells for the next spawning. There is always an abun- 

 dance of spawn in the waters of the Sound, and when a set 

 (e) is secured an enormous crop is the result. On a private 

 deep-water bed, during the past summer, the dredge was 

 drawn at random in the presence of the Commissioners, 

 and from an ordinary-size shovelfull there were counted 

 206 young oysters, in excellent condition, of the average 



(e) ' Set ' (in the vernacular of the shore) means the attachment of 

 the floating spawn. 



