40 



kept clean and free from competing or smothering 

 growths, ascidians, sponges, mussels, and sea-weeds, the 

 spat should now measure about an inch in diameter (2-3 

 cms.); their shell should have acquired sufficient strength 

 to permit it to sustain life in a non-attached condition. 

 After a good spatting season 150 young oysters is a fair 

 average per tile ; in very unfavourable years the average 

 may drop to 15-20 per tile, an occurrence which for- 

 tunately does not take place more than twice in every 

 ten years' cycle. 



Detroquage, a word which it is convenient to adopt 

 from the French as we have no suitable equivalent in 

 English, is carried on ashore in the parker's workyard, 

 ruches beino- dismantled and the tiles beingr brought 

 ashore in instalments as the work progresses. 



Thanks to the imperfect adhesion induced by long 

 immersion in the sea and the presence of the preliminary 

 wash of pure lime, the coating of mortar may now be 

 flaked off in fragments from the tiles with the greatest 

 ease, each flake carrying with it whatever young oysters 

 happen to adhere at that point. A series of sharp blows 

 and thrusts delivered by means of a chisel or spatula- 

 shaped knife suffice to loosen and detach the mortar 

 coating and its burden from a tile — the operation occupy- 

 ing on an average a little more than a minute. The work 

 is easily learned and is not exhausting. It requires 

 exactly that quality of carefulness and attention for which 

 female labour is well adapted ; as a consequence it is 

 entrusted largely to women and girls. While engaged in 

 detaching the small oysters the workers are grouped 

 round wooden stripping tables having a high edge along 

 each side ; in the centre is a large opening towards which 

 the bottom slopes on all sides and through which the 

 flakes of mortar and young oysters drop into a wooden 

 tray placed there to receive them. As a rule the tables 

 are square-topped and of a size convenient for four 

 strippers to work at each, two and two on opposite sides, 

 leaving the other opposed sides free. 



