Oyster Culture in America 125 



preparing the bottom for planting, which has already 

 been mentioned, the seed demands attention. If a 

 planter has obtained his seed from a natural oyster bed, 

 it will be more or less clustered, and these masses are 

 made up largely of decaying shells, of hydroids, sponges, 

 and other organisms. The clusters are culled, the living 

 oysters, of many sizes, being gathered together, and the 

 debris is thrown away. 



When shells, or some other form of cultch, have been 

 used for collecting the young, they are sometimes left 

 without being disturbed until some of the oysters have 

 grown to marketable size. In such a case the oysters, 

 when dredged, are culled, the smaller ones being re- 

 turned to the water to complete their growth. 



Usually, however, the young are all removed soon 

 after attachment and placed on other bottoms where ex- 

 perience has shown growth to be more rapid. The cul- 

 turist sometimes plants them closely, for small oysters 

 require a relatively small amount of food: but they must 

 soon be removed and spread over a greater territory. 

 The process of dredging and replanting is often re- 

 peated two or three times. 



Those who carry on the most extensive business, own 

 tracts in various localities. If they have obtained a set 

 of the young near shore, these may be removed to deep- 

 water beds several miles out in the sound. If a culturist 

 owns no bottom on which a natural set is likely to occur, 

 he sometimes spreads his cultch, and on it places " breed- 

 ers " — mature oysters about to discharge the sexual cells. 

 This is — or should be — done with due regard to the 

 salinity and temperature of the water, and some time be- 

 fore the breeding season normally begins, in order that 

 the oysters may become accustomed to their new sur- 



