THE OYSTER AND THE OYSTER INDUSTRY. 27 



MARKING BEDS. 



Some wStates employ competent surveyors, and oyster beds are 

 laid out with the aid of ranges, such as important natural objects 

 or special signals set for the purpose. The planters then place stakes 

 or buoys along these lines in such a way that each man knows exactly 

 where his boundary line lies. Such practice is to be highly recom- 

 mended as tending to avoid disputes and litigation. 



METHODS OF OYSTER CUT.TURE. 



Owing to the great size of the oyster beds, to the large number of 

 oysters hanclled, and to the liigh price of labor and the relatively 

 low price of the product, it is not practicable in the United States 

 to use the intensive methods of oyster culture employed in European 

 countries, such as France, or in Japan. In those countries, special 

 devices are used for catching the oyster spat and the individual 

 oysters are removed by hand from the collectors and placed on 

 specially prepared bottoms or in ponds for gi'owth and fattening. 

 In the United States, oyster cultivation, in general, is limited to 

 operations which can be carried on by mechanical means on a fairly 

 large scale over areas of considerable size, thousands of bushels of 

 oysters being involved. 



Oyster culture in the United States involves two main methods, 

 the catching of spat, or ''set," on artificially placed cultch and the 

 planting of "seed" oysters. Where oyster culture is practiced one 

 or the other or both of these processes is carried on, depending on 

 the region and the desires of the planter. 



CATCHING OP SPAT, OR "SET." 



As stated previously, for some days after hatching the young or 

 larval oyster is free-swimming. At the close of that period, it 

 becomes attached to some fairly smooth, hard surface in the water, 

 usually rocks, shells, etc., on the bottom. Once fixed, it is there for 

 life and never wanders but proceeds to develop and grow. Failing 

 to make such an attachment, it dies. Both while free-smmming and 

 for a time after fixation the oyster larvas are referred to by ovstermen 

 as "set." ' 



Advantage is taken of this habit of the oyster larvae, and artificial 

 means are employed to increase the area of suitable sm'face upon 

 which to "catch a set" of young oysters. Various sorts of material 

 are put down to provide a suitable surface upon which the set may 

 become attached. The material used for such a purpose is known as 

 cultch. The most commonly used cultch is oyster shells, although 

 the light thin shells of other bivalves, especially the "jingle" shells, 

 are sometimes employed. Oyster shells, being available in great 

 quantities from the opened oysters, may be returned easily to the 

 bottoms, thus providing the cheapest, most abundant, and most 

 suitable form of cultch for the large beds cultivated by American 

 oyster planters. 



After a set is thus obtained on the shells it may be left there to 

 mature into oysters of marketable size, or the shells with the attached 

 set may be taken up and shifted to other beds. This is commonly 



