[43] OYSTER CULTURE IN MORBIHAN. 985 
extend his field of operations, he found himself unable to utilize the 
muddy portions, as the work of consolidating the bottom there would 
have been very great and expensive. He decided, therefore, to make 
use of the cups of M. Michel, superintendent of the hydraulic works, 
in the port of Lorient. These cups, constructed of a kind of cement, 
are about nine inches square, and are capable of containing about four 
and a half inches of water. 
At first two kinds of these cups were utilized, the one being pierced 
through the bottom, and the other solid on all sides. The first com- 
bined with the second might serve as “ambulances.” It would appear 
that the non-perforated cup is really of practical importance, and des- 
tined to become of great service in certain cases. 
M. Turlure has now 52,000 of them placed in his park, in elevated 
places, where raising would have been impossible under any other 
system. They contain fourteen millions of oysters. The net cost price 
of this work of solidifying the bottom amounts to about $1.62 a square 
yard. 
It is impossible, at the present time, to pronounce upon the value of 
this system, but it deserves to be studied with scrupulous care. From 
a theoretical point of view, however, it presents the advantage of afford- 
ing oysters, both large and small, an exclusively calcareous bottom, 
over which may be spread a fine mud of a good brown color, and which, 
not containing animal or decomposed vegetable matter, exercises no 
harmful influence upon the oyster. 
The fact must not be lost sight of that, so long as the mud does not 
become black from the liberation of sulphurous matters, it is, if not 
favorable, at least inoffensive. After turning black it acts as a poison 
upon the oyster. 
Joste made known the mortality which overtook the oysters in Lake 
Fusaro, about the year 1820, on account of the appearance of sulphur- 
ous fumes, due to volcanic eruptions, and the fatal influence of mud 
containing sulphur is to-day well known to all the culturists of Morbihan. 
In case a deposit of the black mud should form upon the basins in the 
Michel system, the action of the atmosphere and light would rapidly 
transform it. It would become brown by the absorption of oxygen, 
which changes sulphurets into sulphates. 
What is most remarkable in connection with the breeding and raising 
parks of Morbihan is the great diversity in the methods of work, and the 
attachment of each culturist to his own system. This, on the whole, is 
praiseworthy, because, with such a multiplicity of trials, the true road 
to suecess is more likely to be discovered. 
At the mouth of the river Ter, we find the parks of M. Charles, where 
the method of proceeding is totally different from that of M. Turlure, 
whose parks are about three hundred yards further up on the same 
river; and yet the success of M, Charles is assured, and the reputation 
of his oysters already made, 
