52 



where there is a very heavy set of spat over a rostrieted area, 

 some of these materials, such as old tin cans or other scrap, 

 might be used to advantage. After the spat have been secured 

 and transferred to the growing bed ,the clutch would break up 

 and entirely disappear so that the oysters would be liberated 

 and allowed to grow up as good-shaped individuals. In muddy 

 places, this form of clutch would remain above the mud until 

 the oysters had reached a considerable size, so that they might 

 rest on the mud without danger of sinking and being smothered. 



COATING CLUTCH. 



In order to overcome the difficulty that has been mentioned 

 .in speaking of the larger forms of clutch; namely, the setting 

 of a dense growth of spat which will become densely crowded, 

 there has been proposed the method of coating the clutch with 

 some material which will break off under the pressure deveiopect 

 among the growing oysters or may be easily scraped oft' by the 

 use of some suitable instrument. This method would be ap- 

 plicable only when the young oysters are to be transplanted ta 

 a growing bed and the clutch recoated and used over again. 



The materials wliieh have been used to coat the clutch have 

 been in most instances some mixture of sand and cement, in 

 M^hich the collectors are dipped and allowed to dry before they 

 are put in the water. The thin layer is easily separated after 

 the spat have grown to a size when it is safe to move them 

 to the permanent bed. 



GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS ON SPAT COLLECTING. 



Whatever may be the character of the clutch used, it is 

 essential that it be without any surface deposit which might 

 prevent the fixation of the spat. For this reason the clutch 

 should be placed on the bed as near the beginning of the 

 breeding season as practicable. In almost any body of water, 

 where the currents are not unusually strong, it will be found 

 that there is a constant deposition of sediment, so that the 

 longer the clutch is left down before the beginning of the breed- 

 ing season, the greater will be the chance that it will become 

 covered with a deposit of slime which will interfere with the 

 setting of the spat. 



