CONTENTS 



Page 



Introduction 48 1 



History of Massachusetts oyster industry 482 



Utilization of the potential seed resources 482 



Growing oysters off bottom 483 



Purpose of the study 483 



Locality and description of the area 483 



Temperature, salinity, oxygen content, and pH of water . 483 



Aquatic life in the river 485 



Materials and methods 485 



Construction of raft 486 



Origin of oysters used in the experiment -_ 486 



Assembling the strings of oj'sters 487 



Determining shell growth and oyster mortality 487 



Analysis of results : 488 



Growth 488 



Effects of temperature, fouling, and spawning on growth 490 



Mortality of raft oysters 491 



Practical aspects of raft culture 492 



Discussion and recommendations 493 



Summary 493 



Literature cited 493 



Appendix A — Mean height and length, standard deviation, and standard error of the 



mean for raft-grown oysters 494 



Appendix B — Total monthly growth and percentage of growth, 1957-58 495 



III 



