570 EEPOET— 1891. 



lectors, as used in France, for the catchment of the spat. 

 In many instances, moreover, land that has yielded no return 

 hitherto may be made to produce an abundant harvest by these 

 methods. 



Aetipicial Spat-collectoes. 



As a practical illustration of what can be accomplished in 

 Queensland waters wuth the aid of artificial spat-collectors, I 

 have forwarded for exhibition at this meeting a sample specimen 

 constructed on the same principle as those that proved so 

 efficacious in Tasmania. It is of more elaborate make than 

 those employed in the last-named colony, for the simple reason 

 that " split palings," of which they are customarily con- 

 structed, were not immediately available at the time they were 

 required, and the apparatus has been manufactured out of 

 sawn board and in a Government workshop, instead of roughly 

 and readily at the water-side. Split palings, however, can be 

 obtained to order in Queensland and throughout the Australian 

 Colonies of the dimensions found most convenient — namely, 

 4ft. long, Sin. wide, and lin. thick — at the rate of 10s. per 

 thousand, a price which places them within easy reach of the 

 most modest oyster-cultivator. It is necessary only to attach a 

 rough stone about the size of a brick, as a substitute for tliose 

 employed in the sample, to each end, and to cement the 

 surface of the board or paling between the two stones. This 

 cemented surface is underneath when placed in the water. 

 How well this form of collector fulfils its purpose is fully 

 demonstrated by the example submitted, upon which, after 

 having been immersed betvN^een three and four months only, the 

 young oysters are crowded together so thickly that they cover 

 the entire surface of the cement, and are jostling one another 

 aside for growing-space. Eoughly estimated, it would appear 

 that there are at least two thousand oysters on this one col- 

 lector ; and all the collectors simultaneously experimented 

 with were similarly covered. At this period of their growth, 

 or a little later, this oyster brood can be readily detached, 

 with the cement, from the surface of the collector for dis- 

 tribution on ground suitable for their freer growth, and the 

 collectors, being recemented, are ready for replacement in the 

 water. 



There are many other cheap and effective descriptions of 

 spat-collectors that can be profitably utilised in association 

 with, or in place of, the form just described. Old oyster-shell, 

 or " cultch," as it is called in England, represents one of the 

 best and most natural materials for the spat to adhere to, and 

 has been utilised for this purpose from the earliest date of the 

 Bi'itish oyster-fisheries. There are many oyster-growing areas, 

 however, on which this material is liable to sink into the mud 



