SPAT-COLLECTING TILES. 251 



Doctor's invention. The composition and the adhering oyster 

 may all be stripped off in one piece, and the tUe may be coated 

 for future use. Tiles are exceedingly useful in aiding the oyster- 

 breeder to avoid the natural enemies of the oyster, -which are very 

 numerous, especially at the periods when it is young and tender. 

 The oysters may be peeled off the tiles when they are six or seven 

 months old. Spat-coUectors of wood have also been tried with 

 considerable success. Hitherto these tiles have been very 

 successful, although it is thought by experienced breeders that no 



OYSTER-TILES. 



bottom for oysters is so good as the natural one of " cultch," as 

 the old oyster-shells are called, but the tile is often of service in 

 catching the " floatsome," as the dredgers caU the spawn, and to 

 secure that should be one of the first objects of the oyster-farmer. 

 We glean from these proceedings of the French piscicul- 

 turists the most valuable lessons for the improvement and 

 conduct of our British oyster-parks. If, as seems to be pretty 

 certain, each matured oyster yields about two millions of young 

 per annum, and if the greater proportion of these can be saved 

 by being afforded a permanent resting-place, it is clear that, by 

 laying down a few thousand breeders, we may, in the comrse of 

 a year or two, have, at any place we wish, a large and reproduc- 

 tive oyster-farm. With reference to the question of growth, 

 Ooste tells us that stakes which had been fixed for a period of 

 thirty months in the lake of Fusaro were quite loaded with 



