THE OYSTER. IO5 



needs modification ; but, as a consequence of the 

 opinion, it was believed that one place was as good as 

 another, so long as there was a good current or tideway 

 there, to spread shells for spawn, whether there were 

 any living oysters in proximity or not. But that this 

 view was fallacious, and that many acres of shells have 

 never exhibited a single oyster, simply because there 

 was no spat or sources of spat in their vicinit}^ there is 

 no reason to doubt. 



" Having learned this, planters began to see that 

 the}' must place with or near their beds of shells living 

 mother-oysters, called ' spawners,' which should supply 

 the desired spat. This is done in two ways — either by 

 laying a narrow bed of old oysters across the tideway 

 in the center of the shelled tract, so that the spawn, as 

 it is emitted, may be carried up and down over the 

 breadth of shells waiting to accommodate it, or by 

 sprinkling spawners all about the ground, at the rate 

 of about ten bushels to the acre. Under these arrange- 

 ments, the circumstances must be rare and exceptional 

 when a full set will not be secured upon all shells 

 within, say twenty rods of the spawners. Of course 

 fortunate positions may be found where spawn is pro- 

 duced from wild oysters in abundance, or from con- 

 tiguous planted beds, where the distribution of special 

 spawners in unnecessary ; yet even then it may be said 

 to be a wise measure. 



"The successful capture of a plenteous 'set,' how- 

 ever, is not all of the game. This must grow to sala- 

 ble maturity before any profits can be gathered, and it 

 so often happens that the most promising beds in Sep- 

 tember are utterly wrecked by January, making a total 



