GREECE AND MOXTEXI{GRO 



281 



it behooves western countries to become 

 acquainted with those methods even if 

 there is no opportunity for their adop- 

 tion in their entirety. 



Owing to a rise and fall of the tide of 

 from 10 to 15 feet, an immense area of 

 bottom suitable for oyster growing is ex- 

 posed twice daily, and the cultural oper- 

 ations are thus conducted under condi- 

 tions that do not exist in America or 

 various other countries. 



The distinctive feature of Japanese 

 oyster culture is that the very young 

 oysters are not allowed to settle on 

 shells or other forms of cultch com- 

 mercially employed in America, but are 

 collected on bamboo stalks to which the 

 branches and leaves are attached. Prior 

 to the spawning season, each oyster 

 grower sets out an immense number of 



prepared bamboo stalks ; these are thrust 

 deeply into the soft bottom, and are ar- 

 ranged in definite lines or groups so as 

 to intercept the floating spat. After re- 

 maining attached to the bamboo brush 

 for one to two years, the oysters are 

 planted on prepared bottoms, where 

 growth and fattening are completed. 

 The oysters are marketed when two to 

 three years old. 



The individual Japanese oyster farms 

 are of comparatively small size and are 

 separated from one another by bamboo 

 fences or hedges. When viewed from a 

 distance at low tide, the exposed bottom 

 and the innumerable upright pieces of 

 regularly arranged bamboo strongly sug- 

 gest an agricultural rather than an aqui- 

 cultural crop. 



GREECE AND MONTENEGRO 



By George Higgins Moses 



U. S. Minister to Grkece and AIgntenegro, 1909-1912 



O 



F THE four allied Balkan States 

 who have made history so rapidly 

 in the past few months, two — 

 Bulgaria and Servia — are contiguous ; 

 and two — Greece and ^Montenegro — are 

 isolated ; isolated not only from each other 

 and from their allies, but isolated practi- 

 cally from the rest of the world. 



Like a clenched hand thrust down from 

 the sturdy arm of the Balkan Peninsula, 

 Greece, blocked, hitherto, from direct 

 communication with that portion of the 

 world which its people so curiously insist 

 upon calling "Europe," has made the sea 

 its highway from classic days : while 

 Montenegro, perched in the rocky fast- 

 nesses of grim Cernagora, both defies and 

 invites invasion with its magnificent sys- 

 tem of highways so delightfully easy of 

 passage in time of ])eace and so superla- 

 tively simple of defense in time of war. 



Behind the stern barrier of the Lovcen, 

 towering 6,000 feet above the smiling 

 waters of the P>ocche di Cattaro, and 

 crowned with the simple tomb of Peter 

 II, the Montenegrin saint and lawgiver, 



who begged to be laid there that his spirit 

 might survey the land he loved so well, 

 dwell the old Lion of Montenegro and 

 his people — he the last of the patriarchs 

 in this modern world and they a race of 

 warriors whose origins lie back in those 

 misty days ere the first faint swirl of 

 the never-ceasing flood of Slavic blood 

 had made its way southward to sweep 

 across the valleys and the plains from 

 the Black Sea to the Adriatic. 



WHY THE MONTENEGRIN WEARS A BL.\CK 

 HAT BAND 



Thither, upon the final overthrow of 

 the ancient glory of the Serb upon the 

 fatal field of Kossovo — in memory of 

 which to this day the Montenegrin's cap 

 is banded with a rim of black — thither 

 retreated a handful of valiant souls to 

 seek asylum with the \'oivode of the 

 Zeta. A few years later, abandoned by 

 their ruler — who preferred a life of ease 

 at \^enice — they turned to their bishop, 

 made him also their i)rince, and with him 

 retreated still deeper into the hills and 



