13 



though our observations are not very extensive along these lines, 

 it has been observed from those who have actually planted shells 

 that the best results can be gotten by laying out the beds in 

 April or early in May. Remember, that at the critical times in 

 the life of the young oysters, that is, when it settles down after 

 being a free swimming animal, the oyster must attach itself to 

 something, if there is nothing but mud, it is smothered, and if 

 bottom is covered with foul growth consisting of the enemies of 

 the oyster larvae, it is eaten up. The point is, to have the ma- 

 terial used for collecting spat free from foreign growth, and 

 to have them stay clean as long as possible to give the young 

 —oyster a fair chance of holding his own in this life. 



Working of the beds. — Supposing then, that we have scat- 

 tered clean shells and the spat has settled, we must not think 

 that the work is over. The same as on land, the more a man 

 ''works" his farm the better are the results he is bound to get, 

 so in the case of oyster farming, the best results can only be 

 gotten by actually ' ' cultivating ' ' the beds. This consists of break- 

 ing up the clusters. As stated above, several hundred young 

 oysters may become attached to a single shell. Normally, there 

 is chance for but few of these surviving, the rest must 

 necessarily be smothered out. What do survive, crowd each 

 other and grow long and narrow and are generally poor, becauss 

 they are under such a strain to exist. Nature can be aided 

 here and the result will be large, round, plump oysters. In 

 our waters, oysters will be ready to "break up" at the end of 

 eight months; ten to twelve, however, is about the right age. 

 At this time all of the oysters ought to be taken up and the 

 clusters that have formed, broken up. If the bottom is com- 

 paratively soft, it is better to let the oysters attain a larger 

 size than if they are planted on a hard bottom, the reason being 

 that the soft mud is more apt to smother a small oyster, espe- 

 cially if they are thickly planted and come to lie one on top 

 of the other. In the deeper waters, these clusters can be broken 

 up quite satisfactorily by means of the dredge. The dredge is 

 dragged over and back on the beds. It kills but few oysters and 

 breaks up the clusters. It will, however, be found more satis- 

 factory to cull the oysters by hand and separate each individual, 



