of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



139 



methods are as necessary as in oyster culture. If stocks are unduly 

 diminished, prolific as mussels are, there need not be surprise if there is 

 a diminished yield of seed for stocking the growing and fattening beds 

 for some years to come. 



Comparing the present condition of the mussel beds in Montrose Basin, 

 while the beds on the north side of the South Esk tenanted by Messrs 

 Johnston & Sons are stocked to their fullest extent, those of the Ferryden 

 and Usan Fishermen's Society are not nearly sufficiently stocked. The 

 Ferryden or Rossie beds are more favourably situated for growth and 

 fattening than the Dun beds on the north side, but, owing to a scarcity of 

 seed, advantage is not taken at present of all the available mussel-growing 

 ground. Mr James West, the fishermen's superintendent, informs me 

 that his society spent nearly .£300 in obtaining seed in 1893, but that, as 

 it was lifted much too soon, a large proportion of it was lost in sowing it 

 on the inshore bank. The seed was about half-an-inch in length when 

 it was lifted. It cannot be too strongly urged that seed so small as this 

 is too young for transference from its first resting-place. Seed mussels 

 should be, at the very least, three-quarters of an inch long before they are 

 lifted. The French have a minimum size which all oysters must attain 

 before they can be legally transported. Something similar is necessary 

 in the case of mussel seed. When there is a dearth of seed the tendency 

 is to secure it too soon, and when the labourers, who are not fishermen, 

 rake the river bottom for seed in order to earn wages, they are too often 

 regardless of whether the seed supplied conforms in size to the sample 

 shown to the mussel farmers. Stringent regulations are required in connec- 

 tion with seed mussels, and intelligent enforcement of regulations will be 

 welcomed by the mussel cultivators. The yield of spat from the South 

 Esk has been quite inadequate to the stocking of the growing beds ; con- 

 sequently, largo quantities had to be imported from a distance. The Tay 

 furnishes the nearest mussel ground where a supply of seed can be got, and 

 the unlimited resources of the estuary from the Tay Bridge to the Pool 

 mouth were drawn upon. For three years large quantities were systematic- 

 ally and continuously imported at great cost from Tayport and from 

 Broughty Ferry. This importation of Tay seed has given employment to a 

 large number of Tayport mussel dredgers who secure the seed and forward 

 it per rail to Montrose. The same system which is employed in France 

 and Holland in connection with the cultivation of the oyster has, by the fore- 

 sight of the tenants of the Dun Sands, been carried out at Montrose, with 

 the result that Montrose Basin is now capable of yielding a larger supply of 

 mussels from the north side of the South Esk than could have been obtained 

 when our previous report was made. If the Scottish mussel beds are to 

 be resuscitated a corresponding expenditure will be necessary. Since the 

 importation of mussel seed from a distance began at Montrose, the Inver- 

 ness Town Council, on my advice, carried out a similar plan, but on a much 

 smaller scale, and the results have satisfied expectations. Except in 

 the case of the E'e, near Nairn — and this was only on the small scale 

 adopted by individual fishermen in the West of Scotland — we never have 

 had anything similar to the large importations of seed from a distance as 

 was the case at Montrose and in less proportion at Inverness. If the 

 Ferryden Society would follow this excellent example, which, however, can 

 only be carried out by a large expenditure of capital, their beds would 

 be more prolific than they are at present or are likely to be for a few years 

 to come. 



The deficiency of native seed was predicted in our Keport (Seventh 

 Annual Report, Part III., p. 332), and the result has been in accordance 

 with the prediction. Since 1889 till the autumn of 1892, there was no 

 1 fall of seed' on the seeding ground of the River Bed, tiie Briggs of 



