SEA MUSSEL MYTILUS EDULIS. 237 



The seed mussels are collected by means of a hook set in a handle like the one shown 

 in figure 221, 5. A characteristic type of basket (fig. 221, 6) is used to receive them and 

 is filled with the young shellfish to the limit of its capacity. When the baskets are filled 

 they are transported by means of the "aeon" to the bouchots batards, where parcels 

 of the young mussels are tied to the wickerwork of the frames by means of old netting. 

 The shellfish immediately begin to attach themselves to the wooded structures by means 

 of their byssal threads, so that by the time the netting has rotted or washed away, they 

 are firmly united to the crawls. 



The rate of growth in this position is very rapid, and in a few months they become 

 so crowded as to almost hide the frames. It then becomes necessary to transplant 

 them again, this time to the next series of crawls lying nearer the shore. The mussels 

 are attached by the same method used in the first transference, but are not fastened so 

 securely, since they are able at this stage to attach themselves to the bouchots much 

 more quickly. After one year's treatment on the crawls the mussels reach a length 

 of 1 l A to 2 inches, which is marketable size. 



The net returns from an investment in a series of bouchots has been published by 

 Fraiche (1863) and Coste (1883), showing that it is approximately 11^2 per cent. To 

 quote from Coste, the production and value of cultivated mussels in the Bay of Aiguillon 

 is as follows : 



A bouchot well stocked, furnishes generally, according to the length of its wings, from 400 to 500 

 loads of mussels; that is to say, about 1 load per meter. The load is 150 kilograms, and sellsfor 5 francs. 

 One bouchot, therefore, produces a crop weighing from 60,000 to 75,000 kilograms, and valued at2, 000 to 

 2,500 francs; from which it follows that the crop of all the bouchots united would weigh about 30,000 000 

 to 37,000,000 kilograms, which at the figures already given would be worth about 1,000,000 to 1,200,000 

 francs. These figures and the abundant crops from which they result give an idea of the food supplies 

 and of the great benefits that may be derived from a similar industry, if, instead of being confined to 

 only one portion of the Bay of Aiguillon, it should be extended to the whole of it, and carried from the 

 locality where it originated to all the coasts and salt water lakes where it could be successfully carried 

 on. In the meantime the prosperity which it secured to the three communes of which it has become 

 the patrimony will remain as an end worthy of effort; for, thanks to the precious invention of Walton, 

 wealth has succeeded to poverty, and since the industry has been developed here no healthy man is 

 poor. Those whose infirmities condemn them to idleness are cared for in most generous and delicate 

 manner by the others. • 



Other methods of mussel cultivation have been suggested and are being used in 

 France. Fraiche (1863) states that this shellfish can be raised in claires or artificial 

 reservoirs the same as oysters, especially in places where the abundance of mud and silt 

 renders oyster culture impossible. The settling basins of the oyster claires in particular 

 can be utilized for this purpose, if proper care is taken to exclude the mussel spat from 

 the inner reservoirs during the season of reproduction. 



A modification of the bouchot method of myticulture is employed in a part of the 

 Lamotte Canal near Marseille. This canal is one of the branches which puts the sea in 

 connection with Berre Lake and is traversed back and forth continually with the tidal 

 waters, which contain great quantities of diatoms and Infusoria, making it an especially 

 rich place for the cultivation of mussels. Because of the slight rise and fall of the tide 

 in this stream, it is impossible to use here the bouchot system of culture. In place of it, 

 claies, or movable wooden frames, are placed vertically between grooved stakes on 

 90392°— 22— 8 



