OYSTERS. 311 



The settlement of young oysters is spoken of by the 

 fisherman and oyster-farmers as a " fall of spat." It is part 

 of the business of oyster-culture to collect the spat, which 

 may then be transferred to some locality especially fitted 

 for the growth and fattening of the young mollusks. For 

 this purpose tiles are employed, covered with a layer of 

 chalk, which is afterwards easily removed, together with 

 the young oysters adhering to it. These are placed on the 

 bottom. But they are apt to get covered with slime, or to 

 lose the roughness of their surface, and thus to become un- 

 suitable for the reception of the spat. To obviate this 

 difficulty floating collectors are now in some places em- 

 ployed. These are moored near the surface where the 

 oyster-fry disport themselves before their shell become so 

 thick as to weigh them down. Floating cars or frames 

 containing seed-oysters are also sometime employed with 

 considerable success. 



When they first settle, and adhere to the tiles and col- 

 lectors, or to the gravel, dead shells, &c., which form the 

 natural collecting medium (or " culch," as it is termed), 

 they are very minute. But they grow rapidly, and in six 

 or eight months attain the size of a threepenny-piece, when 

 they are known as " brood." The diameter of an oyster at 

 two years is about two inches ; another inch is added in 

 the third year; after which the growth is much less rapid 

 At the Fisheries Exhibition, the South of England Oyster 

 Co. and the Whitstable Oyster Co., showed shells of oysters 

 which had produced black spat at the age of one year. 

 As a rule, however, the oyster does not attain its majority 

 until the third or fourth year, and produces the greatest 

 quantity of spat from the fourth to the seventh year. The 

 spatting season usually commences in May, but depends 

 much on the temperature, being deferred till a later period 

 in a cold season. In a warm lake on the south coast of 



