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Signor De Negri ; this also failed through want of money. In 

 1878 Messrs. Turri ad French commenced the artificial propa- 

 gation of trout in one of the mountain streams near S. Marcello 

 (Pistoia), and although entirely dependent on their own private 

 means, have been thus far successful. Again the Agrarian 

 Committee of Bardolino (Verona) have decided to found a pisci- 

 cultural establishment on Lake Garda; on this project the 

 Fisheries Committee reported favourably. Finally, Government 

 has begun the formation of a small piscicultural establishment 

 for trout in the Royal Forestal School at Vallombrosa, in order 

 to impart practical instruction in the matter to those students. 

 Before concluding, it should be mentioned that a successful 

 piscicultural establishment has been working, since 1879, at 

 Torbole near Riva (Tyrol). — 3. Oyster-and Mussel-culture. 

 The inner sea of Taranto (Mare piccolo) and Lake Fusaro, near 

 Naples, which had lost its ancient renown but appears now in 

 a fair way of regaining it, are the principal centres of oyster- 

 culture in Italy; the species reproduced is Ostrea eiulis, several 

 varieties of which are known. Prof. Targioni Tozzetti calls the 

 Taranto oyster lamellosa. The young oysters are collected in 

 the autumn on bundles of branches which had been purposely 

 immersed during the preceding spring in suitable localities in 

 Mar Grande at Taranto, weighed down with stones; these young, 

 called cria, are inserted into loosely twisted ropes (pergoluri) 

 mad' of Spnrtium, which hang from the larger ropes supported 

 on piles which form the sciapi, such being the name of the 

 qnadrangular spaces in the Mare piccolo specially allotted for 

 this oyster culture. The oysters thus transplanted are fit for 

 eating after eighteen months or two years, during which the 

 sciaje arc carefully kept clean. These oysters becoming adult 

 spawn, but the young larvae thus produced do not thrive, and 

 the sciaje must, be kept up by new cria, procured, as I have 

 described, in the Mar Grande. The mean yearly produce of 

 the sciaje of Taranto is valued at six millions of oysters, priced 

 from five to six francs the hundred. The Taranto oysters are 

 beyond doubt amongst the finest I have seen and tasted anywhere. 

 A small oyster culture exists also in the Faro Lagoon, near 

 Messina. At Taranto again, and also in some of the Venetian 



