Oyster Culture in Europe and Japan 79 



pared for them. Board platforms, placed one above an- 

 other with slight spaces between, are also used in the 

 collection of spat. After the young adhering to these 

 have attained a sufficient size, they are removed by means 

 of a knife. 



Brush and boards, however, will not serve in most 

 localities, because both so rapidly become coated with 

 slime. In the development of the industry it became 

 necessary to devise some other form of collector that 

 would overcome this difficulty. The object that proved 

 most successful was a roofing tile. The form of tile 

 now commonly in use is a little more than a foot in 

 length, about six inches wide, and has a slight arc of 

 about one-fifth of a circle. When these are placed in 

 the water with the hollow or concave side down, very 

 little slime attaches to that surface, which is thus favor- 

 able for attachment (Figure 19). 



The young oyster is very firmly cemented to the ob- 

 ject to which it is attached. To remove it from a tile 

 would usually necessitate the breaking of the shell, and 

 this would result in its death. To allow it to remain on 

 the tile to grow to marketable size, would be impracti- 

 cable for several reasons, chief among which is that so 

 many young usually attach to a single tile that they 

 would crowd each other, and the growth of all would be 

 interfered with. When tile collectors were first used, 

 therefore, they were broken into pieces after the attach- 

 ment of the young, and in such a way that an oyster was 

 borne on each piece. This required much skill and labor, 

 and the destruction of the tiles made the process ex- 

 pensive. 



After a time an extremely ingenious plan was devised 

 which made the tile collector almost perfect for 



