246 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
time gives support to several thousand inhabitants of that region. In 1905 the 
village of Esnandes alone marketed 215,253 bushels of mussels, valued at 
$112,433. The total number of mussels cultivated on the French coast in 1905 
is estimated at 425,492 bushels, valued at $222,439. 
Walton’s buchots, or wooden inclosures, for the rearing of mussels were made 
V-shaped, with the apex pointing out to the sea, the purpose of the arrangement 
being to protect the structure from the destructive action of the winds, waves, 
and ice. At the present time a buchot is made up of a row of stakes placed 
about 2 feet apart and interlaced with a mesh work of flexible willow or chestnut 
branches some 12 to 18 feet long and 2 inches in diameter at the larger end. 
The stakes are trunks of trees varying from 6 inches to 1 foot in diameter and 
from 12 to 15 feet in length, and are driven into the ground for about one-half 
their length. The length of a buchot at any particular place varies with the 
character of the bottom and the tides. In the Bay of Aiguillon they are 250 
yards long and placed about 30 yards apart, running at right angles to the shore. 
The buchots are arranged in two divisions, one for collecting the spat, the other 
for the growth and fattening of the mussels. The two divisions may be com- 
posed of as many as five buchots, extending from between tide marks out into 
deep water. The structures out in the deep water may be as much as 3 miles 
from high-water mark and are exposed only at the lowest tides. They are com- 
posed merely of solitary stakes placed about 1 foot apart, which serve for col- 
lecting the spat and forming a most advantageous position for its early growth. 
When about 5 months old the seed mussels are scraped off the piles and 
transferred to the next buchot nearer the shore, where they are fastened in 
parcels by means of old netting. By the time the netting has rotted away 
the mussels are firmly attached to the timbers by their byssal threads. When 
they have grown so large as to be crowded on the wicker work they are thinned 
out by removing the larger ones to the next higher buchots, and so on from one 
section to the other, each time transferring the mussels to the buchots nearer 
the shore. The mussels are attached by the same operation already described, 
but are not wrapped so carefully, since their size is such as to enable them to 
be more securely fastened without help of the netting. The work of transferring 
mussels goes on day and night whenever low tide permits. 
After about one year’s treatment upon these structures the mussels attain 
marketable size, which is between 134 and 2 inches in length. Before ready to 
be offered for sale, those that have reached the desired size are transplanted 
to the highest row, where although left dry twice each day they thrive well and 
can be easily handled when desired for market. Having become inured to 
exposure upon these upper rows, these mussels consequently keep longer and 
fresher than those from the lower rows. The poorest cultivated mussels are 
considered better than the best mussels grown under natural conditions. 
