[37] OYSTER AND MUSSEL INDUSTRIES. 861 
weights. The progeny of the oysters deposited will rise like a living 
cloud of dust through the branches, and the embryos will incrust every 
available point of this structure, which will thus be made the recipient of 
seed. 
These receptacles, filled with this microscopic population, should be 
left on the beds not only during the whole spawning season, but also 
until the young cysters shall have attained a sufficient size to be used 
for restocking other localities. The government vessels will then carry 
the whole structure to the point which may be selected for organizing 
new beds. After they have been fixed for a short time, the young oys- 
ters will detach themselves naturally and sink to the bottom, previously 
cleaned by the dredge, just like the wheat from a drill on ground pre- 
pared by the plow. 
This transportation should be effected in February or March, because 
at that season of the year the spat deposited in the branches, during 
either the months of September or May, are easily discovered, the first 
having already attained the size of a 20-sous piece and the latter that of 
a 2-frane piece. It is then easy to ascertain whether the seed is scarce 
or plentiful, and in what measure it will contribute to the object in view, 
Besides, the force of vital resistance with which it is endowed at this 
age enables it to endure without inconvenience the changed conditions 
of its new abode. 
The possibility of gathering the progeay of the oysters by means of 
this wooden wicker-work is a fact established not only by the results 
obtained from time immemorial on the artificial beds of Lake Fusaro, 
an industry of which I described the methods in my Voyage sur le littoral 
de la France et de UVItalie, but also from experiments made in the ocean 
itself. Branches sunken on the beds of Brittany by M. Mallet, com- 
manding the Moustique, and on those of Marennes by M. Ackerman, 
ex-commissary of marine, were taken out a few months subsequently, 
filled with seed. I preserved them in my. collection as a proof of the 
efficacy ot the methods which I recommend. In order to derive from 
these methods incalculable benefits, it is only necessary to employ them 
on a large scale. 
I make bold to affirm, sire, that if the administration of the marine will 
draw upon the various sources [ have designated, and employ all the 
means tending to the development of the object which I have had the 
honor to recommend to Your Majesty, they will very soon convert the 
whole coast of France, except in such places as are filled with mud, into 
one long chain of oyster beds. It will be necessary for the realization of 
this scheme that the agents be encouraged to devote themselves zeal- 
ously to the service, and that they shall have placed at their disposal 
all the means requisite for the furtherance’of the object in view. As if 
by enchantment the harbor of Brest, the bays of Brittany, and the 
mouths of the rivers will extend their isolated beds and unite them, by 
the creation of new ones, into one vast productive field. The depleted 
