58 ECONOMIC ZOOLOGY 



"7. Other important ways for utilizing mussels are as bait for the fisheries 

 and as fertilizer for the soil on which onions and carrots are to be raised ..." 



Edible Snails. There are various species of snails that are used 

 for food, most of them belonging to the common genus Helix; they are, 

 of course, Gastropods. The eating of snails was known in Italy before 

 the Christian era; the custom was introduced into France in the latter 

 part of the eighteenth century which country is now the chief consumer 

 of this mollusc. It is estimated that in Paris alone 200,000,000 snails 

 are consumed in a season, September to April the price varying 

 from 50 cents to $2 depending on the species, quality, etc. They are 

 a delicacy, not a staple article of food, like beef. 



Snail farms or "snaileries" are common in southern France, in Italy, 

 and in Spain, though the business is not so profitable as formerly. The 



FIG. 41. Shell of Abalone, Haliotissp. 



snails are collected in the woods by peasants; they are put in "pens" 

 or "gardens" surrounded by a low fence of wire netting, about 10,000 

 snails in a pen 25-30 feet square. They are fed on all kinds of vege- 

 tables or on bran-mash. Each snail lays about 50 to 60 eggs in 

 the summer, which hatch and become sexually mature the next summer, 

 but do not reach their full size until the second summer. 



They are cooked in various ways: i.e., they may be boiled, picked 

 out of the shells, minced, flavored and then stuffed into the shells again. 

 They could probably be easily raised in the United States in places 

 that are useless for other purposes, but a popular taste would have 

 to be created or they would have no market. 



Abalone, genus Haliotis, Fig. 41. This familiar gastropod of the 

 western coast is useful both for food and in the manufacture of orna- 



