PELECYPODS 433 
time a Roman named Sergius Orata first cultivated oysters at 
Baiz. The acuteness of the gastronomic sense of a Roman 
epicure is thus described by Juvenal : 
He could tell 
At the first mouthful if his oysters fed 
On the Rutupian or the Luerine bed 
Or at Circeii. 
The poet Gay’s opinion is expressed thus: 
The man had sure a palate cover’d o’er 
With brass or steel, that on the rocky shore 
First broke the oozy oyster’s pearly coat, 
And risk’d the living morsel down his throat. 
The methods employed in oyster-farming resemble those of 
agriculture, in that the bed is prepared, seed is sown, superfluous 
and foreign growths are weeded out, enemies are driven off, and 
the crop is harvested at stated seasons. The oyster is ovovivipa- 
rous; that is, it retains its eggs until they are partly matured. 
These are held in,the gills and mantle folds until the time of 
spawning, which begins in May and lasts through the summer 
months. The larve are ejected as ciliated spheres, called spat, 
and swim freely about for some time, often several days, before 
finding a resting-spot. The oyster-grower secures many of the 
larve by placing in their way substances to which they can 
attach themselves. The American culturist strews his carefully 
prepared beds with empty oyster-shells, on which the spat settle, 
and the seed is thus secured; for the spat, once fastened, lose 
the power of locomotion and become fixed. At the end of a 
year the shells which hold the young oysters (now about an inch 
long and called “fry”) are taken up, and the fry are thinned out 
and replanted, or are sold to other oyster-farmers. 
During the period of their growth the oysters are sometimes 
transplanted several times. At the end of three to five years they 
have attained marketable size, and the beds are then harvested 
and prepared for another crop. Some oystermen have several 
acres of bottom under cultivation. These areas are obtained by 
purchase or grant from the State, and their limits are as defined 
28 
