784 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [32] 
CHAPTER II. 
MEANS AND METHODS OF GATHERING AND TRANSPORT- 
ING OYSTER-SPAWN. 
If the reader has attentively followed and understood what has been 
recorded on the preceding pages concerning the causes of the ruin of our 
oyster-beds, the evil resulting from the present mode of gathering oys- 
ters, and, finally, the methods of reproduction, especially that employed * 
at Lake Fusaro, he has probably been able to recognize that the first, 
and by all odds the most important, thing to be done in the new industry, 
is to gather up, with the least possible loss, the young growth sent forth 
by the mother oysters during each spawning season, then to cause them 
to attach themselves to some object which will give them sufficient 
support for their future growth, and also allow of their removal, either 
to preserve them from mud or other causes of mortality, or to transport 
them to a distance in order to restock barren territories, or acclimate 
foreign species. 
Accordingly we propose to proceed at once to the description of vari- 
ous styles of apparatus used in such collecting, and indicate, for each 
one, the conditions under which it is especially to be recommended. 
Movable collecting apparatus.—In those sections where oysters already 
exist, and where the fishermen have not completely stripped the beds, 
the fixed collecting apparatus is alone necessary for the multiplication 
of this mollusk; but when it is demanded of the beds that they not only 
furnish supplies to the ordinary fishermen, but also the young necessary 
for restocking barren lands, and medium-sized oysters for the artificial 
parks and basins, then movable collecting apparatus should be used. 
This is the most economical method, and the most certain, when it is 
desired to plant oyster-beds upon virgin soil. Many efforts have already 
been made to stock new waters and restock old by throwing into the sea 
oysters which have been taken at a distance and transported at great 
expense to the place of the experiment; but nearly all the attempts have 
proved futile, either from the impossibility of keeping oysters alive on 
board of vessels during a long voyage, or from their soft condition at the 
time of their arrival and their sudden change into a strange water, or pos- 
sibly from not encountering in their new locality conditions suitable to 
their existence. Moreover, this process is very expensive, and very slow, 
for the oysters destined to be the source of the future supply are neces- 
sarily always very limited in number, and must be above all carefully 
_preserved and no fishing allowed until the young from the first spawn- 
ing, which may have been much retarded by reason of the change of 
locality of the old ones, have attained a marketable size. Thus a period of 
five or six years at least must elapse before sufficient returns can be ex- 
