REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 27 
the size of mosquito netting was used and found to be a great 
improvement, inasmuch as it saved enormous numbers of very 
small clams which were excellent for transplanting, but which 
would not be caught in a sieve of larger meshes. When clams 
ean be found in such great abundance, it is not necessary to resort 
to the special artificial devices for collecting the spat from the 
water; but we must, nevertheless, bear in mind the fact before 
mentioned, that these rich areas are limited in extent, and that 
the set in any one area is uncertain from year to year. 
For the practical experiments of this summer, we depended 
mainly for our spat upon the area just described, at Green’s Island, 
and more than twenty bushels of these small clams were taken 
from this locality and transplanted. 
Transplanting. — Having obtained the young clams, by one 
method or another, we confront several problems: the best season 
for planting ; the best methods for caring for the material between 
the time of collecting and that of, planting; the best method of 
actually planting the clams; the selecting of localities for plant- 
ing, which involves, among other questions, the one relating to 
the rate of growth. Here, again, the natural history has pointed 
out the way for preliminary experiments, and a large number of 
tests were made during the summers of 1900 and 1901. These 
experiments were recorded in tabulated form in the report for 
1900, pages 27 to 44. The general results may be summarized 
here. 
The best clams for transplanting are the small ones, such as may 
be obtained during July and August, having been spawned in the 
early summer. There are two excellent reasons for this: First, 
clams are more easily gathered. Not only can greater numbers 
be obtained, but greater quantities, with the same expenditure of 
labor ; and second, the young specimens are capable of burrowing 
much more readily than the older ones. Before they are five- 
eighths of an inch in length they are especially desirable, from 
the fact that they have the power of anchoring themselves when 
they are sown upon the surface while preparing to burrow, and 
