828 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [4] 
The number of young thus thrown out from the mantle of a single 
oyster at each spawning is not less than from 1,000,000 to 2,000,000; so. 
that at the time when all the adult individuals composing a bed set 
free their offspring, this living mass escapes like a thick cloud, which 
moves from the center whence it emanates, and which the movements. 
of the water disperse, leaving upon the parent stock but an insignificant 
portion of that which it has produced. All the remainder wander, and. 
if these animalcules, which wander here and there by myriads at the 
mercy of the waves, do not meet solid bodies where they can fix them- 
selves, their loss is certain; for those that do not become the prey of 
lower animals which subsist upon Jnfusoria, end by falling into a place 
unsuited to their subsequent development, and often by being engulfed 
in the mud. 
One could, therefore, render the industry a great service by furnish- 
ing a means of preventing these immense losses, and of securing nearly 
all the crop. The methods of Lake Fusaro, if we knew how to extend 
their application, would present this advantage. The stakes and fagots. 
by which the artificial beds are surrounded are precisely for the purpose 
of preventing the escape of this spreading mass, and of presenting sur- 
faces where they can fix themselves, like a swarm of bees to the shrubs: 
which they encounter on going out from their hives. They attach 
themselves there, and grow so rapidly that at the end of two or three 
years each of the original living corpuscles becomes edible. 
The facts which the fishermen in charge of the operations at Lake 
Fusaro brought to my notice confirm what I advance here. The propa- 
gating stakes, which have stood around the artificial beds for about 
thirty years, were drawn out before me covered with oysters which one 
could assign, notwithstanding the numerous variations of size, to three 
distinct periods. The largest, resulting from the first spawn which 
became attached to these stakes, were from 6 to 9 centimeters in diame- 
ter, and were, for the most part, marketable; those of .the middle size, 
ranging in diameter from 4 to 5 centimeters, were only sixteen or 
eighteen months old, and were the products of a second season; some 
of the smallest were of the size of a 2-frane piece, others that of a 50- 
centimes piece; the remainder, finally, were of the size of a large lentil, 
that is to say, from 6 to 8 millimeters in diameter. The age of the first, 
according to the testimony of the fishermen, was about six months; that 
of the second, three; while that of the last could not have been more 
than a month or forty days. Their growth would appear rapid enough 
if we would consider that at the time of their expulsion they were but 
the fifth of a millimeter in diameter.* . 
When the collecting season arrives they withdraw the stakes and the 
*According to M. Dureau de la Malle (Acad. des Sci., 19 avril 1852), the young oys- 
ters placed in beds established at Cancale grow very rapidly. In a year and a half 
they reach the size of 9 centimeters, while upon the bank of Diélette they would require 
five years to attain that size. 
