[35] OYSTER CULTURE IN MORBIHAN. i 
tile, is the highest zone of the park, a short distance below low-water 
mark; higher up they would die from the effects of the sun’s rays in sum- 
mer, and from the cold in winter. Fish and crabs, especially the former, 
venture less to this height; they frequent, by preference, the deeper re- 
gion of the park, which is seldom uncovered. It is evident to me that, by 
placing the young unattached oyster at the height which I have indi- 
cated, they are preserved, whereas when placed lower down they may 
be considered as lost.” ; 
The conclusion seems rational to us, in a general way, that at the time 
of the removal of the young oyster, if it is detached from the tile, it 
should be placed in a cage. They may be scattered through the upper 
parts of the park, after they have acquired some size and strength, and 
may be placed near the lower current, in the lower part of the park, 
when they are able to offer greater resistance to attacks upon them. 
This principle being acknowledged, what is the proper time of removal 
from the collectors? The oyster culturists of Morbihan admit, as a gen- 
eral rule, that it should be done early, and in this they are right. To 
leave the collectors in place for one or two years would be to provoke a 
dangerous deposit of mud, which would have the disadvantage of 
stifling a part of the crop. The usual practice is to begin the work of 
removal in Mareh and April; a tlexible knife is passed under the coat- 
ing of the tile, and thus is obtained rapidly, and without harming the 
oyster, that particular product termed oyster seed by Dr. Kemmerer. 
In Mareh and April, the growing season begins; oysters grow in the 
summer and fatten in the winter. 
Also, if oysters should be injured during removal, in the beginning of 
Front elevation. Side elevation. 
Fig. 8.—Cage for holding the day’s work. 
spring, they are then in the best condition for healing. Still, there is 
one very intelligent culturist, M. Alphonse Martin, who begins detach- 
ing his oysters in the month of November. 
“T have three hundred and fifty cages,” says he, ‘and, therefore, pos- 
sess the means of placing all my young in them for the winter, thus to pro- 
0,24 tect these unfortunate mol- 
lusks, within a restricted 
area, and save them from 
Fig. 9.—Scoop. erabs and fishes, the aceum- 
wation of mud, and the force of the current, which would carry them 
S. Mis. 2 
9) 
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