[65] OYSTER CULTURE. 817 
The sea is the place to go for the germs, and the most simple col- 
lecting apparatus is the low crawls or solitary posts employed by Wal- 
ton. Stakes are planted towards the beginning of the spawning season 
in those sections where mussels are known to exist. Then, after several 
months, the stakes are pulled up and the groups of young mussels 
covering them used as the first supplies for the hurdles or frames. If 
upon the coast where the basins are built or where it is desired to estab- 
lish this industry, mussels are so rare that there is no hope of gathering 
a sufficient number of young ones upon the stakes, a circle of stakes can 
nevertheless be formed, planting them from 10 to 15 centimeters apart, 
upon that portion of the bottom which is uncovered perhaps only twice 
per month, and then suspending to them, at a short distance above the 
ground by means of netting or twine, clusters of adult mussels which 
have been gathered from the sea just before the spawning season. The 
mussels thus imprisoned within the circle of stakes will spawn just as 
plentifully and in better condition than if left upon the sea-bottom, and 
the spawn as it encounters the stakes, which prevent its dissemination 
throughout the water, becomes attached to them; in this way a numerous 
progeny can be gathered and transported to the prepared hurdles when 
they have reached a suitable size for handling. 
After the basin has been once planted it may be made henceforth to 
‘furnish its own supplies, and this it will do with much more certainty 
since all the spawn is obliged to remain in the basin; thus if one util- 
izes the purifying basin for mussels all communication between the 
elaires and the basin must be cut off during the spawning season of the 
mussels. Stakes planted here and there will suffice to collect a sufficient 
quantity of the young, and the hurdles or frames to which the adults 
are attached will also be covered with a young growth, for in these arti- 
ficial basins the water is nearly always at the same level, and the hur- 
dles are never uncovered, as happens at sea; hence the spawn will not 
be liable to perish from too long an exposure to the air, but will thrive 
wherever it may become attached. 
One can also make use of a very simple and ingenious apparatus 
which fills the double office of collector and hurdle or frame. If consists 
of a raft (Fig. 22) formed of a variable number of pieces of wood, accord- 
ing to its size. To this raft between the stringers and in the direction 
of the length of the frame are attached, like the slats of a blind, pieces 
of planks, or, better still, wicker-work frames, about 30 to 40 centime- 
ters in breadth (10 to12 inches). They can be made to turn upon their 
axes so as to take any desired inclination, or they can be suspended by 
one end, as shown in the figure. After floating a raft of this kind, with 
the planks or hurdles suspended vertically, in the water where the 
mussels are spawning, it can be carried into the breeding basins when 
it has become covered with germs, and the rearing go on without any 
other care than to replace the planks or wicker frames lengthwise of the 
raft, and change their inclination now and then to remove the mud 
S. Mis. 29-——52 
