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would be less severe in that respect, and they would grow much 
faster if they could be kept for a longer time under water. 
In the oyster pond at Budle Bay the temperature averages 83 F. 
m winter, and 57° to GIF F. is obtained in the summer. 
The mussels get a final change to the stream when they have 
attained a size of one-and a-half to two inches, and after a year of 
the constant feeding their position now gives them, they are ready 
to be sold to the fishermen. 
Fnder the treatment which 1 have sketched out, it takes some 
5 — (5 years for a mussel to reach bait size when planted fairly 
thickly. if planted in smaller clusters only four years arc 
required, viz. — 
18 months before removal. 
18 ,, growth. 
12 ,, fattening in the stream. 
The best results under present conditions at Budle Bay are 
obtained by giving the growing mussels G — 7 hours' submergence 
each tide. With less than that the mussels may grow to nearly the 
same size, but they do not fill properly. Still better results would 
naturally follow a longer period of feeding. 
There is plenty of food in the bay for mussels; all that is wanted 
is to put the mussels under water that they may feed upon it. A 
trial pond was made at the four hours' level in which the mussels 
were always under twelve to eighteen inches of water, which, of 
course, was renewed every tide. The mussels which were planted 
for a full crop grew to a good bait size and fattened seemingly as 
well as those under water for seven hours in the tide. Owing to its 
high level, however, the pond became a deposit for weed, which 
unfitted it for cultivation. 
Of course, as has already been pointed out, even in the best 
situations, planting in small clusters favours growth and fattening, 
while planting to produce say sixty to one hundred tons per acre 
retards development ; the mussels attain a round shape, and are not 
so well filled. I need scarcely mention, moreover, that spates if 
continued do not favour the development and fattening of mussels. 
At Budle Bay the native mussel was taken and a beginning made 
with the few that, with much difficulty, could be collected. These 
were brought together, and the ground near them cleared to 
encourage the lodgment of spat. This was in 1890. In the fishing 
