FOOD value of sea mussels. 
1 19 
CULTIVATION OF MUSSELS. 
In Europe, where there is considerable demand for mussels as food and bait, it long 
ago became necessary to cultivate them artificially on a large scale. Two methods were 
devised. One may be termed the buchot system or French method, and the other the 
bed system or British method. The buchot system is apparently much the older and 
its history, although published in many French and English periodicals, is so interesting 
that it ought to be recorded again briefly at this point. 
Strange as it may seem, this French system of culture was invented by an Irish- 
man named Walton who was the sole survivor from a shipwreck in the Bay of Aiguillon 
near the village of Esnandes some seven or eight centuries ago. Authors disagree as to the 
exact date. Quatrefages (1854) states that it was in the year 1035, Bertram (1865) 
says 1135, while Coste (1883) puts it at the close of the year (1235). Walton was kindly 
received by the French fishermen, with whom he decided to make his home, although 
the prospects of making a good living were not very bright. 
Up to the time of Walton’s arrival the inhabitants of the coast had been unable to get 
much sustenance from the sea, but the newcomer was ingenious and was not long in origi- 
nating a means for earning a livelihood from this source. His first step was to explore 
an immense lake of mud which was in the locality and there observing that large num- 
bers of land and sea birds were in the habit of skimming over the water at twilight, he 
determined to catch them as an object of trade. For this purpose he devised a large 
net, the “alluret,” which was between 330 and 430 yards long and 10 feet in height, 
fastened in a vertical position to stakes driven into the mud to a depth of 3 or 4 feet. 
Birds flying into its meshes were entangled and held securely. Shortly after beginning 
his bird-catching business, Walton discovered that young mussels in great numbers were 
collecting on the submerged stakes of his net. He also observed that mussels sus- 
pended for some distance over the mud grew to a larger size and were better flavored 
than those upon the mud. He experimented by putting down many more stakes, 
which in turn became covered with growing colonies of mussels. Continuing his experi- 
ments he was soon convinced that the young of native mussels could be easily gathered 
and profitably raised in artificial reservoirs. 
The buchot system of mussel culture that was finally established by Walton is still 
followed and has proved a lasting reward and blessing to that locality, where at the pres- 
ent time buchots extend for miles along the coast and give support to several thousand 
inhabitants. In 1905 the village of Esnandes alone marketed 215,253 bushels of mussels, 
valued at $112,433. The total number of mussels cultivated on the French coast in 
1905 is estimated at 425,492 bushels, valued at $222,439. 
Walton’s buchots, or wooden inclosures for the artificial rearing of mussels, were 
made V shaped, with the apex pointing out to the sea, the purpose of this arrangement 
being to protect the structure from the destroying action of the wind, waves, and ice. 
Each wing of the V consisted of a row of stakes placed about 2 feet apart and interlaced 
with a meshwork of flexible willow or chestnut branches some 12 to 18 feet long and 
