1882. | SHELL-FISH COMMISSIONERS’ REPORT. (>) 
No other restrictions are placed on the oystermen except 
against fishing on Sundays and between sunset and sunrise. 
Artificial methods for catching spawn have received little 
attention from Connecticut oyster growers, except in the 
case at Groton hereinafter mentioned. They are followed 
in a variety of ways in Europe: clean bushes and faggots 
are anchored or hung on chains in the vicinity of spawning 
beds, where the prevailing currents will carry the floating 
spawn to them. In this way immense quantities are 
caught and left to grow until ready for planting. Clean 
nen tiles made for the purpose are also placed onand 
near the spawners’ grounds to catch the spat, and they 
serve better than anything else for thispurpose. Another 
method is that of raising.a mound of rocks and gravel, 
about the time of spawning, and covering its surface with 
ripe brood oysters; around the mound are driven stout 
stakes or piles, close together, so that the floating spat 
cannot easily escape ; eae thus intercepted, spat adheres 
to the stakes and is there left until ready for planting. 
On the Poquonock river, near Groton, white birch 
bushes are stuck in the river mud, about spawning time, 
in fourteen or fifteen feet of water, at low tide. To these 
the spat adheres in great quantities. They are left undis- 
turbed eighteen months, by which time the set becomes 
good-sized seed. On one bush, which was four inches 
through at the butt, twenty-five bushels of oysters were 
found, seven of which were large enough for market. The 
average yield is about five bushels to the bush. The 
srounds are so soft and muddy that no other method is 
feasible. About fifty acres are under this kind of cultiva- 
tion, and the area is rapidly extending. The bushes are 
grappled out of the mud by derricks. The oysters are of 
excellent flavor and the business is profitable. 
By the fourth section of the act of 1881 it is provided 
that grants of grounds may be made “for the actual costs 
of surveying and mapping of such grounds and the further 
consideration of one dollar per acre.” It is impossible, 
from the nature of the business, to ascertain in each case 
the actual costs of surveying and mapping. Before any lot 
