REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 43 



temperature like many other minute swimming forms. The}^ are 

 no more likely to return to the flats where they were produced than 

 to settle in distant places, and, therefore, a man who should keep a 

 bed of breeding clams would not benefit himself any more than his 

 neighbors. We cannot control these conditions, and no more can 

 we control the activities of the myriads of minute animals which 

 feed on the SA\imming clams, such, for example, as the worm larv£e, 

 copepods, crab larvae, and hundreds of species, not commonly known, 

 which abound in the waters of the Bay. 



Protection of Spat. — When the clam is finally set and the spat 

 begins to burrow, something can be accomplished toward their 

 ])rotection; chiefly, however, by protecting them from the clam hoe, 

 and in transplanting them when they have set too thickly. 



TRANSPLANTING. 



A large number of experiments have Ijeen conducted, during the 

 last few years, which have demonstrated that it is perfectly feasible 

 to transplant clams and have given definite information in regard 

 to the following points: the best size for planting, the methods of 

 collecting and caring for the seed between the time of collecting and 

 planting, the value of different soils, the methods of planting, the 

 rate of burrowing, the rate of growth, and the like. 



Best Size for Transplanting. — Clams of any size, from one-eighth 

 of an inch to five inches in length, can be, and in our experiments 

 have been, successfully transplanted. The smaller sizes, one-half 

 inch more or less in length, are best for several reasons: They can 

 usually be obtained more easily than the larger ones, and they bur- 

 row more rapidly and more surely; they can, indeed, be sown upon 

 the surface of the ground, like oats, so great is their capacity for 

 burrowing. This burrowdng power decreases with the size of the 

 clam. The growth of the young clams is much more rapid than 

 that of the old ones. Finally, if they are left undisturbed, they 

 grow to a large size, with a handsome shell, even and smooth. 



