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THE CONSERVATION OF OUR OYSTER SUPPLY.
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banks about the 1st of July; the little spat at once cling to it, if they are anywhere near, and they are allowed to remain on
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e4/PSM_V44_D021_Tile_collectors.jpg/300px-PSM_V44_D021_Tile_collectors.jpg)
Fig. 7.—Tile Collectors.
the tile until October, when they have attained "about the size of a finger nail." The tiles are then carefully placed upon lighters and floated ashore, where the seedling oysters are detached from them "by short pushes of a chisel-like knife." The spat usually
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3a/PSM_V44_D021_Wooden_tray_collectors.jpg/300px-PSM_V44_D021_Wooden_tray_collectors.jpg)
Fig. 8.—Wooden-Tray Collectors.
averages on moderately clean ground about four hundred per tile, but as many as two thousand have been counted on one tile of fourteen inches by six.