136 American Fisheries Society 



is that the planks or frames decay rapidly, often causing 

 an entire loss of the harvest. 



Myticulture is also practiced in Italy, especially in the 

 vicinity of Taranto, where mussels are raised to supply 

 the southern markets of the peninsula as far north as 

 Rome. Here the shellfish are cultivated on ropes made 

 from rushes or "alfa" suspended in the water from 

 stakes which are placed from 20 to 30 feet apart depend- 

 ing on the depth of the water. The ropes are hung over 

 the mussel beds close to the shellfish in order to catch 

 the free swimming young. Six months after a set of 

 spat has occured the ropes are taken up and all the shell- 

 fish on them which have attained the size of an almond 

 are removed. The smaller ones are left to grow until 

 the following season when they will have attained suf- 

 ficient size for food purposes. The larger mussels 

 selected are interlaced, either singly or in bunches, into 

 ropes which are then suspended vertically from a main 

 rope extending between two stakes planted out in deep 

 water. Parks are also utilized in the culture of mussels 

 by this means, some of them extending 2600 to 2925 feet 

 into the sea. The yearly yield of such a park is 40,000 

 to 50,000 pounds worth from $880 to $1,100. 



In Germany the Bay of Kiel contains extensive areas 

 where mussels are cultivated. The method employed at 

 this place is to drive stakes into the bottom and leave 

 them there for a period of from 3 to 5 years, during 

 which time they become covered with mussels of mar- 

 ketable size. They are then taken up, stripped of the 

 shellfish and replaced by others. About 1,000 stakes are 

 planted annually in this locality from which the yield 

 of mussels amounts to about 800 tons. 



The systems of myticulture so far mentioned are adapt- 

 ed for regions where the bottom is composed of mud tod 

 soft to support a bed of mussels and where there is con- 

 siderable rise and fall of tide over large areas. Where 

 the bottom is hard or covered with only a thin layer of 

 mud, and silt is not being deposited rapidly, a much 

 more economical method of cultivation is merely to 



