CONSERVATION AND INCREASE OF PRODUCTION 113 



Winslow experimented with tiles in Tangier sound, meeting with great 

 success. Stems and branches of the white birch stuck in muddy bottoms 

 of the Poquonock river, Connecticut, succeeded in capturing great num- 

 bers of spat. Bricks, pottery, scrap tin, chips, bark, brush, straw, pebbles, 

 etc., have been tried, but the only objects that have found general accept- 

 ance are shells. These are nearly everywhere obtainable, and in oyster 

 or other shell-fish regions are sometimes so plentiful as to be regarded 

 somewhat of a nuisance, especially by the shuckers and canners. Oyster 

 shells are the most commonly used, and can be obtained often for the 

 trouble of taking them away. In some places scallop, mussel, clam, or 

 silver-shells are used. 



In planting new beds the obtaining of seed is an important consider- 

 ation. Chesapeake bay retains the greatest natural oyster reefs. Long 

 Island sound possesses gravel beaches that prove favourable spots for 

 a set of spat, but there are places where a set rarely occurs. In Connecticut 

 many shell-planters make a specialty of procuring seed. Its value may 

 vary from $0.10 to SI. 00 per bushel, depending upon the number, size, 

 and regularity of the young oysters it contains, the distorted shapes, old 

 shells, sponges, or rubbish, the locality from which obtained, the enemies 

 that may be carried over, whether it has been culled or left in the rough 

 state as taken from the beds. The larger the seed the more valuable it is 

 regarded, because the more capable of withstanding injury and sooner 

 marketable. The usual size is from 1 to 1^ inches in diameter. Of course, 

 if the seed is assorted and cleaned, the smaller the specimens the greater 

 number there will be to the bushel and the greater gain when they are 

 grown. 



Seed from southern plants is stated to be just as hardy as that in the 

 north. Virginia plantings do well in Long Island sound and spawn in 

 the same summer. Each spring small numbers of Chesapeake oysters 

 are set down and fatten earlier in the fall than the natives. In very 

 favourable places yearlings, it is said, will grow up for market in six months 

 or a year, but it generally takes two or three years. In places it takes 

 longer now than formerly — doubtless because of the greater scarcity of 

 food. The larger bring a higher price, so it pays to leave a year or two 

 longer. The important thing is to sow evenly — not in heaps — 300 to 

 600 bushels to the acre; if too thick there may not be sufficient food and 

 they will grow distorted and be poor. 



Methods that prove successful at one place may fail at another. 

 In parts of Long Island sound the planting of southern seed is now almost 

 supplanted by shell culture. The shells must be either so placed that 

 floating larvae from neighbouring beds will pass, or else native or 

 transported spawn oysters be distributed, among them. In the latter 

 case spawners from not too great a distance are most likely to be 

 best. It is said that southern oysters about to spawn taken to Long 



