Oyster Culture in America 123 



dredge all the cultch and expose it to the air so that the 

 slime organisms may decay, dry, and flake off the shells 

 before they are again planted. 



Most of the slime organisms, however, inhabit rela- 

 tively salt water only, and collections placed in brackish 

 water may for a long time remain free from this organic 

 coating. It thus happens that young oysters become at- 

 tached to the shells of others that may have been grow- 

 ing in brackish water for some time. This explains why 

 the clustering of oysters is more rapid where the water 

 is relatively fresh, in or near the mouths of streams, 

 than in deeper and salter water. 



When a farmer has plowed his field and planted his 

 corn, he must still expend much labor on the growing 

 plants if he expects to harvest a good crop. Thistles, 

 ragweed, cockles, and other weeds spring up with the 

 corn, and if they are not plowed under and kept down 

 until the corn is high enough to shade them, much of the 

 crop becomes stunted or perishes. If planted too thickly, 

 the struggle among the corn plants would bring the same 

 results. 



So it is in rearing oysters. Only labor insures a good 

 crop. This should seem reasonable, for one's experiences 

 teach him that he seldom receives benefits without work- 

 ing for them. By analogy, he should hardly expect an 

 exception in this case, but the fact is that a great many 

 who have undertaken the cultivation of oysters seem to 

 have had this very expectation. .Analogy is usually a 

 poor form of argument, but it is safe in this case. 



In ignorance of the methods of the thrifty Connecti- 

 cut oyster grower, many a prospective cultnrist on other 

 coasts has taken a few boat-loads of " coon " oyster 

 clusters from a natural reef, dumped them on a barren 



