74 MUSSEL CULTURE 



localities, some of which collected a considerable 

 amount of seed. 



From the evidence given before the Mussel 

 Commission, it appears that the bouchot erected 

 by the Fishery Board cost between ^50 and £60, 

 a sum which must be considered as a serious 

 handicap in the initial outlay for a bed. The 

 price of labour in this country, being rather higher 

 than that in the west of France, also acts as a 

 hindrance to the adoption of the system, since 

 much tending is necessary. In places where, for 

 the proper cultivation of extensive mussel scalps^ 

 a considerable number of men are employed, it 

 might, however, be possible to erect and tend 

 bouchots as an accessory means of spat-collecting 

 It seems certain, in fact, that great quantities of 

 spat might be secured on bouchots, just as we 

 might collect, were it worth while, by the more 

 elaborate means employed for oyster culture ; but 

 the great advantages of the bouchot system in 

 producing fat and clean mussels seem to apply 

 more to the cultivation of the shell-fishes for food, 

 as in France, than to their growth as fishermen's 

 bait in this country. In addition, as Professor 

 Herdman very justly points out,^ ' There can be 



^ Loc. ciL p. 124. 



