348 ARTIFICIAL OYSTER CULTIVATION IN FRANCE. 
three inches of space, and often, though not always, adult 
oysters are laid along in these spaces. When the ruche 
is otherwise completed, heavy stones are placed upon the 
top to make the mass more solid and safe to resist the 
action of the stormy waves. Oysters are strewn all 
around these ruches, which are regularly separated from 
each other by a space of fifteen feet. Between the ruches 
bundles of faggots, or fascines, bound together in the 
middle with galvanized wire, are suspended about one 
foot from the bottom, by a cross piece made fast on two 
low posts. When the drifting “spat” is ready to adhere 
to a suitable object, a very large proportion of it is 
caught by, or seeks refuge in one or the other of these 
friendly asylums, and safely grows to the usual merchant- 
able size. : 
One of Professor Coste’s early experiments was with a 
box a yard square, perforated with holes, containing two 
shelves with bottoms of coarse wire-cloth. Sixty adult 
oysters were placed on these shelves and on the mud on 
the bottom. The sides and top of this box—made in 
pieces to take apart—were roughed up with an adze to 
attract and secure the “spat,” but this plan was abandoned 
for two reasons; first, the unavoidable expense, and, 
secondly, it was found that the “spat,” when first evolved, 
is not ready to adhere to anything, however suitable, but 
must swim about for a few days; and so the enormous 
quantity of little ones, given out by the mother oysters in 
the box, escaped through the holes and located themselves 
elsewhere. The tiles oe the faggots are now in uni- 
versal use. By the middle of August the oysters have 
finished their reproductive labors, and begin to fatten 
again, having become very poor during the summer, but 
the tiles and faggots are not taken up until a month later. 
