1184 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



when converted into an English agricultural term, means 

 the lying fallow ; and, 2. La mise en hmneur, or the after- 

 cultivation. The object of allowing a pond to lie fallow is 

 to purify the soil by evaporation and oxidation. 



The water is allowed to run out of the reservoirs, 

 which are then quite dry, except at high spring-tides. 

 Under these conditions the mud dries and cracks in the 

 same way that a ploughed field breaks up after a winter's 

 frost. The protoxide salts get turned into peroxides, and 

 any decaying organic matter that may be in the mud is 

 rendered innocuous. As the result of two months' exposure of 

 this kind, the surface is covered over with a new layer of fine 

 desiccated mud of a fresh and purified nature. The second 

 part of the operation is then undertaken, and a small quan- 

 tity of water is admitted into the enclosure, just enough in 

 fact to cover it entirely. The dry crust at the top of the 

 mud then slakes and, as it were, effervesces in doing so ; 

 the final result being the deposit of a fresh layer of mud of 

 uniform thickness over the whole of the basin. This 

 creamy layer the French call humeur, and the diatoms 

 contained in it are supposed to be rendered more diges- 

 tible by the operation. The whole operation occupies 

 from six weeks to two months. The oysters are then placed 

 in the tanks thus prepared, and begin to turn green in 

 about a fortnight, though the longer they are left the better 

 flavour do they acquire. 



The number of oysters laid down depends upon the 

 time it is intended to keep them ; for as the food supply is 

 limited in those ponds where the water is not changed very 

 often, of course a small number will fatten more rapidly in 

 a given space than a large number ; the average number is 

 about 6000 on an acre. 



