972 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [30] 
CHAPTER III. 
REMOVAL OF THE YOUNG OYSTERS FROM THE COLLECTORS—THETR 
PRESERVATION—ENEMIES OF THE OYSTER. 
Attached and freed oysters.—In well arranged breeding parks, where 
care has been taken to employ the means previously mentioned, both 
= as regards the choice of ¢ 
collectors and their ar- 
rangement, about the 
month of August, small 
yellow spots will be no- Fic. 6.—Pincers for cutting the tiles in preparing 
the attached oysters. One-tenth the ordinary 
ticed. These are none © size. 
other than the newly hatched oysters, which attach them- 
selves to the tiles and develop there. In the earlier experi- 
ments it was decided to wait two or three years, before re- 
moving the oysters from the tiles. But oysters left to grow 
upon the collectors assume imperfect shapes. Upon stone 
or wood they grow very flat, and upon tiles they become 
distorted and a portion of the young are stifled. Further- 
more, when oysters remain for several years upon the col- 
lectors, it is impossible to regulate, according to necessity, 
the care which they demand. 
Where there are good raising parks, it would be well to 
remove the oysters at an early date, so as to allow them to 
grow under better conditions; but the best course to pursue 
in the matter of raising oysters has not yet been determined 
upon, at Morbihan, as the different methods in use will deci- 
sively show. 
When a young oyster is removed from the collector, the 
valve by which it adhered is exceedingly delicate, and, not- 
withstanding the existence of a calcareous appendage, result- 
ing from the calcareous covering of the tile, still the surface 
of attachment presents a very weak point. 
By attacking it from this side, its enemies are able to de- 
stroy it, and, therefore, all the proceedings during the first 
stage of raising are directed toward protecting the recently 
detached oyster from its foes, while at the same time its 
growth is going on. 
Fic. 5.—Knif Wee 7 
re deimenine Two principal systems are followed at Morbihan. 
the young oys- ese ; See i 
ters reduced The first consists in cutting up the tile, so as to leave each 
t half tl 
ordinary size. OYSter with a fragment of tile adhering to its shell. By so 
doing, there is no weak surface exposed, to be attacked by an enemy. 
