NATURAL HISTORY OF THE MUSSEL 6$ 



experience has shown are successful, will, it is 

 hoped, serve as a basis of knowledge to those 

 who desire the improvement either of particular 

 scalps or of the supply of bait in any district. 



To the writer it seems most probable that, as 

 Professor MTntosh has already indicated, the 

 initial expenditure required to start successful 

 farming of mussels will be repaid whenever the 

 various sections of a fishery have been resus- 

 citated and fully brought into action. The con- 

 dition of any bed to be regulated will determine 

 to a very large extent what the initial expenditure 

 is likely to be. If it is necessary to bring seed 

 from a considerable distance, or employ labour 

 to clear or prepare the ground, expenses will be 

 greater than in cases where, as in Inverness and 

 Cromarty Firths, for instance, the ground is 

 naturally most suitable and nuclei of seed-beds 

 exist. In no case, probably, will initial expendi- 

 ture be great, and when in three to four years 

 systematic cultivation has been established, any 

 bed should easily produce a sufficient supply of 

 marketable mussels to enable those in charg-e to 

 pay all expenses if not to make a profit. 



The gathering of the spat of the oyster is now- 

 a-days almost entirely accomplished by means of 



