88 THE OYSTER, 



ing the area and value of the natural beds, and of 

 building up new beds or restoring old ones, has been 

 proven. 



As this is by far the most important aspect of the 

 oyster problem, I shall devote considerable space to 

 the history of these experiments, and to a description 

 of the means and apparatus which have been employed 

 for the purpose. 



Although the development of this industry on a 

 large scale is quite modern, seed oysters for planting 

 have been raised artificially upon a small scale in 

 Italy for more than a thousand years, by a very sim- 

 ple method. 



Pliny tells us that the artificial breeding of oysters 

 was first undertaken by a Roman knight, Sergius 

 Orata, in the waters of Lake Avernus, and that the 

 enterprise was so successful that its director soon be- 

 came very rich. 



At the present day the methods which were intro- 

 duced, and probably invented by Orata, are still em- 

 ployed by the oyster cultivators of Lake Fusaro, a 

 small salt-water lake. Upon the deep, black mud 

 of the lake they have constructed here and there 

 heaps of rough stones, high enough to keep them 

 above the mud and slime ; upon these rocks, oysters 

 which were taken from the sea have been placed 

 to supply the spat, and these breeding oysters grow 

 and multiply and do not need to be renewed, unless 

 they are killed by some accident such as a volcanic 

 eruption. Each pile of rocks is surrounded by a 

 circle of stakes, firmly planted in the mud, while 

 their upper ends are united above water by a cord, 



