JAPANESE OYSTER-CULTURE. 
31 
which in most cases becomes exposed only at the lowest tides. Here the oysters are 
brought together which have become detached from shibi in various parts of the 
farm, and thus they are retained in classified beds until they have attained their 
second year’s growth. During this time the culturist has but to keep them well 
spread out and to see that the beds are kept clean. Always at lowest tides, and 
sometimes as often as fortnightly, the laborers give the oysters a vigorous raking 
(using for this purpose the short-toothed rake shown in fig. 14), which scatters them 
about the bed, removes foreign bodies, and, best of all, gives the shells a better 
shape and a firmer rim, for in this treatment the delicate, cuticular outgrowths of 
the shell are removed and a more symmetrical growth results. Of especial impor- 
tance is the process of raking in cases where the oysters are sent directly from the 
living ground to market; for it has been found (here as elsewhere) that those oysters 
Fir;. 23.— Bamboo collectors arranged after the fashion common in Kusatsu. The shibi stand about 
3 feet above the bottom and their tips diverge; the clumps are set i or 5 feet apart. 
whose shell rims are strong and accurately fitted together fare better during trans- 
portation and in the market. Those with delicate and brittle margins soon suffer 
injury and lose their fluid through leakage and evaporation. 
In some farms, on the other hand, it is maintained that oysters of different, 
sizes should be mixed on the same living ground. For it is claimed that the 
young oysters grow better side by side with the older ones, and even that if the 
more perfectly grown oysters of different grades can be mixed together during the 
process of raking, the better will be the general output. 
( d ) The final stage in the culture of Kusatsu takes place in maturing grounds, 
or miire-ba. Here the larger oysters of the second year’s growth are laid down, 
transplanted from the one or more ike-ba of each establishment. Usually they are 
in the deepest water cultivated, i. e., in water a few feet in depth at lowest tides 
up to water of 3 or 4 fathoms. I was told that in one miire-ba oysters were culti- 
