[45] | OYSTER CULTURE. — 197 
and the price of the component parts. We will leave this subject, 
then, to his ingenuity, trusting we have said enough, so that he need 
not run any risk or labor in the dark in this first stage of the oyster in- 
dustry, in which the collecting apparatus is an instrement of prime im. 
portance. 
CHAPTER III. 
PREPARATION OF THE BOTTOMS.—CONSTRUCTION OF 
CLAIRES, PARKS, LIVE-PONDS, ETC. 
All bottoms are not equally adapted to the culture of the oyster; some, 
even, are entirely opposed to it and can be modified only by completely 
changing its nature. It is, then, of primary importance for the oyster 
culturist to know how to rightly estimate the value of the soil which he 
wishes to work, as to its aptitude for the production and growth of this 
mollusk, and to be able to modify it according to the needs of the case. 
This is the subject which we propose to treat of in this chapter. 
The type of marine bottom especially adapted to the growth of oysters 
is offered to us at several points along our coast, particularly in the Bay 
of St. Brieux. The bottom there is firm and suitable, covered with a 
rather thin layer of fine sand, formed by the débris of shells ground up 
by the action of the sea and the natural wearing of one shell against 
another, with large fragments or whole shells scattered here and there 
over the surface. There also occurs here a thin layer of marly mud, 
similar deposits of which exist nearly everywhere, but it never increases 
in this locality so as to become injurious, for at every tide the water, 
which comes in from the ocean with great velocity, carries the greater 
portion of the mud off with it as it retires. Moreover, the water of this 
bay is singularly well adapted to the development of all kinds of marine 
animals, from its vivifying properties, brought about by its ceaseless 
dashing and breaking upon the numerous rocks which line the coast, and 
by its constant renewal through which it maintains a favorable mean 
temperature. We will take this sort of bottom as a type and model, 
and indicate by what means those places which differ from it in some 
respects can be modified so as to produce nearly as favorable results. 
It can be said, in general, that all soils are or can be made suitable for 
the culture of oysters, although in different degrees; the only ones to be 
excepted are those formed of large deposits of mud, so deep and so con- 
stant in its renewal that there is no hope of its being carried away ; 
and those constantly shifting sand-banks, which change with every 
spring or very high tide and every heavy sea, covering up upon one side 
as much as they uncover upon the other. The impossibility of any pre- 
vious preparation of such soils will prevent any desire or attempt at 
working them. We shall not, therefore, treat of such bottoms, at least 
not in this chapter, but confine our attention to oyster culture on those 
