CULTIVATION OB MARINE AND FKESH-WATEB ANIMALS IN JAPAN. 287 



The method of culture is very simple. The young are collected all over Ariake 

 Bay in July and Augusl of each year. They are then between land 5 centimeters in 

 length, and are dug out by spades and hands and then transplanted to culture grounds, 

 care being taken to protect them from the sun's rays during the passage. Arrived at 

 the culture grounds they are scattered about and soon find their way into the mud of 

 the bottom, which must therefore lie well adapted for the life of this mollusk. 



These shells are left for about three years. According to the specimens given 

 me by .Mr. Fujita for examination, at the end of the rirst year after transplanting 

 fchey are 5.6 centimeters lone-; at the end of the second year, <>.(> centimeters: at the 

 end of the third year. !» centimeters; and at the end of the fourth year. 10 centimeters. 

 In some parts growth is no doubt mure rapid. 



BARNACLES, "jIMEGI." 



Balanvs sp. 



Further out in the same tide flats where the agemaki is cultivated as described 

 in the previous section, there are planted bunches of bamboo collectors that look like 

 the collectors for oyster spat. Here, however, they are to collect a species that is 

 generally considered injurious to cultural enterprises — namely, the barnacle. The 

 collectors are put up twice in a year — that is, in the spring and in late August. 

 The spring collectors begin to lie taken down after sixty days and it is thirty days 

 more before they are all disposed of. The autumn collectors are left standing one 

 hundred days, after which they are gradually taken away before the next March. 

 The barnacles that are attached to the collectors are beaten oil' and used as manure. 

 The annual yield is 400,000 bushels, fetching 30,000 yen. This cultivation has been 

 going on ever since 1830 or thereabouts. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



''Tairagai" {Pinna japonica Reeve). The cultivation of Pinna is confined to a 

 small village on the Inland Sea, but it is interesting a- a specimen of what can be 

 done in the way of mollusk cultivation. A little west of Onomichi, a large town on 

 the north side of the Inland Sea. there is a small village called Hosojima. It has 

 only twenty -five households, bill each of these twenty-five possesses a small Pimm 

 culture ground of its own, not more than 50 by 30 feet. 



Every October young Pinna, between 7 and 8 centimeters long, are collected at 

 a shoal near the village and put rather thickly into the culture grounds. The 

 triangular shell, upright, with the acute apex below, is buried in the mud to the edge 

 of the shell and placed in such a way that the hinge line is toward the land and 

 the open gaping side toward the sea, thus preventing the muddy water that runs 

 down from entering the mantle cavity of the mollusk. By < >ctober of tin 1 next year 

 the shells have increased about two andonedialf times in size, although they are said 

 to decrease in number -in per cent, and will not grow much more even if left longer. 

 They are then taken out, and new. young shells arc put in their place. 



Egg cases of ( iastropoda. The peculiar leathery egg cases of various gastropods 

 have a commercial value in Japan. You see them sold in the streets, dyed red. each 



