102 Our Food Mollusks 



When large, they usually have been culled, or separated, 

 after they have been taken from the natural bed, and con- 

 sequently grow more rapidly and assume a better shape 

 than if closely crowded. On the other hand, increase 

 in the size of large oysters is relatively slow, and the 

 amount of increase is not great. A bushel of very small 

 seed may eventually produce ten bushels or more of mar- 

 ketable oysters, while seed may sometimes be so large as to 

 yield but two or three bushels from the one planted. 



The most important feature of the planting of small 

 seed is the possibility of its great increase in volume. In 

 Europe, seed oysters as small as one's finger nail are 

 carefully separated from each other when removed from 

 the collectors on which they have become attached. But 

 the price of labor in this country, when compared with 

 the market price of oysters, precludes the possibility of 

 employing such methods here. So very small oysters 

 are planted still attached to the collectors — shells or 

 gravel — and allowed to grow for some time closely 

 crowded as they are. 



Usually a time comes when they should be removed 

 from the bottom and separated in order to prevent crowd- 

 ing. This is accomplished much more easily and with 

 smaller loss with oysters that have been growing for a 

 year or two than with very small seed. Planters natur- 

 ally differ greatly in their methods. Some will allow 

 small seed to do the best that it can without attention, 

 and finally dredge and sell the oysters that have been able 

 to attain marketable size. Others really cultivate the 

 beds, culling the oysters and removing useless shells, sea- 

 weed, and other obstructing material, and they receive 

 larger returns, because their oysters are of better shape 

 and size. 



