CONTINENTAL OYSTER CULTURE. 367 



collectors are left one to two months, when they are taken into 

 the stake enclosure. Later on the fascines are cut up and made 

 into pergolari. When the time comes for remaking these, the 

 big Oysters are not remade in pergolari or pendant ropes as 

 at Taranto, but are placed in closed wooden chests suspended 

 in the enclosures ; the small Oysters, however, are remade as 

 before. 



These illustrations may suffice to describe the distinctly 

 Italian system of Oyster culture. In the immediate vicinity of 

 Venice, however, Oyster rearing is carried on in rather a different 

 way. Breeding is not attempted, but young Oysters cast up or 

 dredged are laid down in shallows (valli), or portions of lagoon 

 with a varying depth of 9 to 12 ft., intersected by small channels 

 (ghebi). At low water the bed of the valle is dry, the channels 

 alone remaining navigable by small boats. The water is always 

 calm, with rapid currents in the channels at ebb and flow. Close 

 by debouches a branch of the river Brenta supplying fresh water, 

 and thus explaining the inaptitude of the locality for breeding 

 purposes. The Oysters grown here, for the most part on shelly 

 sand, are regular in form, clean and strong shelled, but their 

 development is slow. At one year old the average diameter 

 is £ to 1 J in. ; at two years of age only a few are saleable ; . the 

 majority must be kept another year to reach market size. This 

 system more resembles the French method. 



II. — French, Dutch and Austrian Oyster Culture. 



Along the French littoral of the Atlantic, especially at Arcachon 

 and Auray, Oysters are largely farmed. The basin of Arcachon, 

 one and a half hours by train from Bordeaux, has a circumference 

 of 50 miles. A tongue of sandy ground, wooded with pine, 

 extends from north to south, where an inlet places the basin in 

 communication with the Atlantic. Along the shore of this inland 

 sea, 10,000 acres of beach are dry at low water, and afford sites 

 for the farms (pares or claires), which are divided and enclosed 

 by embankments of fascines and earth, serving not only to mark 

 the farm, but also to retain the water which at flood enters 

 through self-closing sluices. The area of an average-sized farm 

 is 150 by 325 ft., and it is usually intersected by 6 ft. wide 

 canals* 



For collecting spat, curved tiles are used. These are piled 



