ARTIFICIAL OYSTER CULTIVATION. 1173 



is weighted with stones. Another method is to place them 

 in rows like card houses. The tiles should be placed in 

 position while the oysters are spawning, as they soon 

 become slimy and covered with dirt. As soon as the 

 oysters are large enough to handle they should be removed 

 and distributed over the planting ground, as they are often 

 so crowded together on the tiles that they have no room 

 to grow. When used in deep water the tiles may be 

 fastened to a frame, which may be sunk upon or near a 

 natural bed. (c] 



RUCHES 



Are arrangements of tiles round a stake, and serve the 

 same purpose of keeping them off the mud as that already 

 described. In addition to the various modes of spat 

 collecting already mentioned, I may state that cockle-shells 

 are used as culch for the oyster spat to adhere to ; they are 

 thrown on to the breeding-beds ; and they sow them 

 during the time the oyster spat are floating about in the 

 sea. Frank Buckland, in his examination before the 

 Select Committee on Oyster Fisheries, 1876, adds that 

 " Spat are especially fond of cockles, and that the great 

 advantage of cockle-shells cultch is, that the oysters will 

 grow up in handsome bunches, they can be broken off, 

 and they will grow into proper size and shape, and become 

 handsome and fit for market." 



Major Hayes, Inspector of Irish Fisheries, in his 

 report on the principal Oyster Fisheries of France, made 

 in 1878, noticed at Arcachon, a new form of collector for 

 spat, viz., cockle-shells strung closely together upon wire, 

 a hole being made in the shell near the hinge ; the wire 

 is run through, and when strung they are placed at the 



(c) " The Development and Protection of the Oyster in Maryland." 



pp. 111 113. 



