786 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [34] 
hemp cords cannot endure, without decay, a prolonged sojourn under the 
water. The fascines are also furnished with stones, which, being attached 
by other wires to the first-mentioned central wires, serve to anchor the 
fascines and maintain them at a depth of from 20 to 30 centimeters above 
the bottom. . 
About three weeks before the spawning season the fascines are 
placed over the beds from which the spawn is to be gathered, and are so 
disposed, according to the configuration of the bed, that obstacles 
as collectors shall be met with in every direction where the tidal currents 
may be transporting the embryos. Experience has shown that fascines 
thus disposed receive the young in such abundance that each often 
holds several thousand. They are left in place from five to six months; 
by this time the young oysters have attained a size of from 2 to 3 centi- 
meters in diameter, and can very easily be removed. from the branches 
to which they are attached, and placed in such grounds as it is desired 
to restock, whether these be far or near, for nothing is easier than to carry 
these young animals, either upon the fagots or off, providing fresh sea- 
water is supplied them. The disadvantage of this apparatus is that the 
same fagots cannot be used more than once, or for a single gathering. 
The action of the sea-water soon destroys them, and they do not gener- 
ally last long enough to permit the oysters which cover them to acquire a 
marketable size. This process may be advantageously employed to in- 
crease the supply of oysters in a park, but always upon the condition © 
that it is to replace those taken away and for the multiplication of the 
quantity in the park, for the entire renewal of the fascines each year 
would be too expensive. This is not the method, however, to which we 
would give the preference in the case of a long journey by land or sea, 
in transporting the young growth from the place of production to the 
breeding ponds. 
Platform collector.—This collecting apparatus is susceptible of all man- 
ner of modifications as to form and size to adapt it to the character of 
the ground upon which the bed is located. Not only is it easily made, 
arranged, and handled, since one person can perform all the labor neces- 
sary, but it also does no injury whatever to the oysters which it covers. 
Itis generally placed in position one or two weeks before the spawning 
period, and during its stay over the bed it preserves the oysters from 
all deposits of mud; when it is charged with a young growth it can 
be taken down in a short time and transported to any required distance, 
leaving the bank which it had covered not only in its primitive condition, 
so far as the original stock is concerned, but moreover enriched by a 
large number of germs which, had it not been for the presence of the 
collector over the bed, would have been carried away, at least in great 
part, by the tidal currents, and thus lost. The platform collector consists 
(Fig. 8) of several rows of posts arranged in pairs, A, each pair being 
fastened together, with an intervening space of 12 to 15 centimeters (4 
to 5 inches), and planted in the ground over the entire area of the bed 
