OYSTERS AND METHODS OF OYSTER-CULTURE. 325 



These baskets or receptacles are open at tlie top and are intended to be filled with 

 clean oyster or clam shells as cultch for the s{)at. They are each to hold about 3 

 bushels of shells, a quantity as large as can be conveniently handled by two men. 

 One hundred of these will therefore contain 300 bushels of cultch, though I actually 

 believe that 400 such boxes, or 1,200 bushels of cultch, through which sea water 

 charged with fry thrown oft" by 100 bushels of spawning oysters would pass, would 

 not aftord too great an amount of spatting surface, because we have shown on the 

 basis of actual observation that a body of water adapted to oyster-culture is capable 

 of yielding spat throughout all of its three dimensions. 



Tliese boxes or frames, after thej^ are filled with the cultch, are suspended in the 

 canals, the cross section of which they should nearly fill at low tide. They are placed 

 with their widest dimension across the canal, so that during the rise and fall of the 

 tide the water has to rush through them no less than four times daily, and as the 

 water is thoroughly charged with embryos, the greatest possible opportunity is 

 aiForded the young fry to affix itself. 



In order to still further guard against the accumulation of sediment it is proposed 

 to place jetties across the canals. These may consist of boards, forming a frame, 

 which may slide into or be secured by vertical ledges fastened to the sides of the 

 canal. These jetties may have one or two wide vertical slots in them, through 

 which the tide will be compelled to flow with augmented velocity, and thus scour 

 the sediment off of the cultch contained in the suspended boxes or frames on either 

 side of them. Such jetties may be placed at intervals along the canal, and they 

 might be made movable, so as to be changed in order to afi'ect other sets of boxes of 

 cultch at other points along the sluice. 



The system of canals, as shown in the plans, should hold about 400 receptacles filled 

 with shells, or at least 1,200 bushels of cultch. In practice I think it probable that 

 even a longer system of canals will be found available; but it must always be borne 

 in mind that the area of the pond must not very greatly exceed the total area of the 

 system of canals, or else so much more water will run out of the pond at every ebb 

 of the tide that a great many embryos will be carried past the system of collectors 

 in the canals into the open water and be entirely lost. There is, consequently, a 

 very good reason for having the areas of the two nearly equal. 



The preceding system of culture, it will be obvious, is only an application of 

 principles well established and based upon the observation of the actual behavior of 

 oysters under natural conditions, as observed at Fortress Monroe, St. Jerome Creek, 

 Woods Hole, Cohasset, and Long Island Sound. 



The spawning ponds, after the season is over, may be used for fattening choice 

 oysters for market, as they will actually hold about the quantity stated at the outset 

 of this chapter. They may also be used in connection with another modification of 

 the method of using cuJtch nmch crowded together or condensed, to be described 

 later on. 



The cultch may, without harm to the spat, be allowed to remain in the suspended 

 receptacles in the canals until the first or middle of October, when it should be taken 

 out and spread upon the bottom on the open beds where it is to grow larger. The 

 reason for allowing the cultch to remain so long in the boxes is because spatting 

 under favorable conditions continues for not less than ninety days, or from July 1 to 

 October 1, so that all of this plant should be in working order by the 1st of July. 

 *f ***** * 



What we must do to-day is to adapt such means to the solution of the oyster prob- 

 lem as will render them applicable in practice. The American cultivator does not 

 get the price obtained by the French or Dutch oyster-farmer, nor can he for a long 

 time to come expect to, for the reason that the aggregate area upon which the Ameri- 

 can oyster is cultivated or indigenous exceeds by many times that upon which the 

 European species is either native or cultivated. The European methods of using 

 cultch, such as tiles, slates, brush, fagots, etc., are too expensive, too elaborate, for 

 our practical people. We must reap in quantity what they reap out of the high 



