THE SHELLFISH INDUSTRY 



299 



surface, on which the oysters are laid, is kept clean and 

 free from the ubiquitous crabs and starfish, the oyster 

 cultivator's greatest enemies. In the early summer the 

 collectors (Plate 107) are arranged in preparation for the 

 spat which will appear as soon as the water becomes warm 

 enough for the oysters to start breeding, and in preparation 

 for this the tiles are scraped clean and relimed, and later 

 arranged, concave side downward, as shown in Figure 60, in 

 crate-like wooden cases. Great numbers of these col- 

 lectors are put out just below low-water mark, where 

 the tiny swimming oysters will be washed against them 

 every time the tide re- 

 treats, and, if there is a 

 good " fall of spat," the 

 tiles soon become covered 

 with hundreds of trans- 

 parent specks, each of 

 which represents a future 

 marketable oyster. 



The collectors are 

 allowed to remain in the 

 water until the beginning 

 of the following year, care 

 being taken to keep them clean and free from encrusting 

 plants and animals which might smother the spat. As 

 soon as the weather is good, perhaps as early as January, 

 but in some years not until May, the tiles are brought 

 ashore, so many at a time, to a shed where " detroquage," 

 as the process of separating young oysters from the collect- 

 ing tiles is called, is carried out. Girls are largely employed 

 in this work, each one stripping on an average some 200 tiles 

 per day. For the time being the oysters are placed on 

 wooden trays in a storage tank, but as soon as possible they 

 are picked out, cleaned and separated into different sizes, 



Fig. 60. — Oyster '" collectors," showing 

 manner in which tiles are arranged. 



