53 



lu making a plant with clutch it is necessary to consider 

 tlie location of the area to be planted in relation to liin natural 

 oj planted beds in the same lociility. If there are any extensive 

 beds in the vicinity of the area selected it is probable that the 

 waier over the plant will teem with fry at the breeding season, 

 and an abundance of spat will be secured. When it is desir- 

 able to start a plant in a region where there are no beds of 

 oysters, it has been found that a comparatively small number 

 of breeding oysters placed on the bed before the beginning 

 of the breeding season will in most instances be sufficient to 

 furnish the fry necessary to secure a good set of spat. When 

 mature breeding oysters are to be placed on a plant to furnish 

 the fry for stocking the plant, it has been found that they 

 should be taken from a region where the conditions are as nearly 

 as possible the same as those in the place to which they are to be 

 transferred. They should also be transferred some time before 

 the beginning of the breeding season if good results are to be 

 obtained from the use of this method. AVhen the breeding oys- 

 ters are taken from a reef to a locality where the conditions of 

 salinity and temperature are very different, the sexual products 

 often degenerate and none will be given off at the time of the 

 first breeding season after the transfer. 



If the bottom is firm, or has been prepared for the recep- 

 tion of the clutch by artificial hardening, it is best to put down 

 the breeding oysters some time before the clutch, so that the 

 oysters will have had time to become acclimated. 



Usually from 30 to 60 bushels of good-sized oysters to the 

 acre are put on the bed to furnish the fry. In depositing the 

 breeding oysters the best results will be obtained if these are 

 put in bunches rather than scattered evenly over the bed. Since 

 the sexual products are thrown free in the water and can live 

 for a short time only unless fertilization takes place, it follows 

 that if the oysters are near together there is more chance that 

 the eggs and male elements will meet before their vitality is ex- 

 hausted. Once the eggs are fertilized, the swimming move- 

 ments of the larvae, and the currents in the water, will take 

 care of the distribution of the spat so that the set will be pretty 

 even over the whole area, provided there is an abundance of 

 the spat. 



