EUROPEAN METHODS OF OYSTER-CULTURE. 359 
famous for its oysters — the Mare Piccolo. This is literally a small oyster-bearing sea, 
in every way comparable to the artificial one at the Sables d’Olonne. Its walls are 
its shelving sides, its floodgate is its constricted outlet into the gulf, one made still 
narrower by an outcropping island of rock — the ancient city and castle of Tarente. 
The Mare Piccolo is an oblong mass of water about 7 miles in major diameter, whose 
greatest depth is scarcely more than 40 feet. Its basin in general is saucer-shaped, 
with a bottom of firm calcareous sand, holding a depth of water especially favorable 
for purposes of cultivation, averaging perhaps from 3 to 4 fathoms. This remarkable 
shallowness tends not a little to maintain the water temperature, during the greater 
part of the year, warmer than that of the gulf beyond. The large surface for evapora- 
tion, in view of the small volume of water, would naturally lead one to expect an extreme 
density. As a matter of fact, however, this condition, which would undoubtedly be 
little favorable to the oysters’ spawning, does not occur. The density of the water 
mass is, on the contrary, found to be uniformly low, as the fresh water entering the 
basin more than compensates for the loss caused by evaporation. A considerable 
part of this freshened water is derived from the small streams incurrent from the 
north. In this region, too, submarine springs are known to be present; of these the 
Citrello, which emerges near the Convent di Rosa, is especially remarkable. 
The direct benefits of the tempering of water in these portions of the Mare Piccolo 
may be seen in the number of parks here. The specific gravity along this northern 
range of parks was found to vary (April 24, 1892) between 1.022 and 1.023 at 60° 
F.; to the southward and westward, about a mile distant from the outlet, the density 
had risen to 1.027 at 59° F. 
As one approaches the city of Tarente on the railroad from Brindisi, a very good 
idea may be obtained of the extent of oyster-culture as the road bends around the 
shore of the Mare Piccolo. As far out as one can see the bay is bristling with oyster 
stakes whose ends project several feet above the surface. (PI. lxxv, Fig. 1.) These are 
soon observed to pass into distant perspective in regular lines and to mark off the water 
surface into squares as of a checkerboard. These inclosures, which in France would be 
called oyster parks, measure about 15 feet square. They are leased at about 50 cents a 
year, and each culturist secures as many as he can cultivate. They are rented from a 
joint-stock company which has obtained from the city council the leasehold of the entire 
bay bottom, surveyed out in about twenty sections, for an annual sum of $10,000. The 
minuteness of the subdivision of this area is the result and also the cause of competi- 
tion, and the energy of rival eulturists adds much to the success of their industry. 
The Italian is the very opposite of the French system of oyster-culture. French 
proprietors cultivate the shore lines between the levels of high and low water; their 
parks are embanked inclosures holding a few feet or inches of water until the tide 
advances; they cultivate their shores in a horizontal plane. The Italians cultivate 
oysters in all depths of water and make the number of oysters fattened in a given 
park stand in proportion to the volume of water. Having but scanty fall of tide, their 
system has become vertical oyster- culture. To cultivate horizontally the French have 
hardened their muddy beaches, have inclosed tidal areas, and have spread miles of fiat 
cases of iron gauze to furnish growing space for their oysters. The Italian culturist 
has devised every means of supporting his oysters in the water volume between bot- 
tom and surface. In France, owing to unfavorable local conditions, the industry is 
minutely subdivided. A park of several hundred acres may be devoted to collecting 
