66 MUSSEL CULTURE 



artificial collectors. These usually consist of 

 arrangements of limed tiles placed so that the 

 current carrjang the spat will play freely upon 

 them. So we have the gabaret, bouquet, and 

 planche collectors of France, and the vast areas of 

 tiles in Holland, arranged as if in brick fields, 

 described simply as e7i ruches. For collecting 

 mussel spat, and growing and fattening mussels, 

 only one system, the bouchot, is adopted. It 

 is employed only in France, but has been ad- 

 vocated in our country, and tried experimentally 

 in a few places. A description of culture would 

 therefore be incomplete without it. At the 

 same time, I think it is certain, that although the 

 bouchot would be a useful accessory on the 

 mussel farm, a perfectly adequate supply of bait 

 could be procured without it. The system is 

 dealt with in the next chapter. 



