The cultivation of mussels is carried on by the inhabitants of the communes of Esnandes, Chavron, and Marsilly. Many of the _boucholeurs_ possess several _bouchots_, while the poorest of them have only a share of one _bouchot_, cultivating it, together with the other owners, and dividing the profits among them, according to their shares. The _bouchots_ are arranged in four divisions, according to their position in the bay, and are distinguished as _bouchots du bas_ or _d’aval_, _bouchots batard_, _bouchots milieu_, and _bouchots d’avant_. The _bouchots du bas_, placed farthest from the shore, and only uncovered during spring tides, are not formed of fences as the _bouchots_ proper, but consist simply of a row of stakes, planted about one boat distant from each other, and in the most favourable position for the preservation of the _naissain_, or young of the mussels. Upon these isolated stakes the spat is allowed to collect, which is afterwards to be transplanted for the purpose of peopling barren or poorly-furnished palisades in those divisions which, planted nearer the shore, are more frequently uncovered by the tide. The various operations of mussel-cultivation are designated by agricultural terms—such as sowing, planting, transplanting, etc. Towards the end of April the seed (_semence_) fixed during February and March to the stakes of the _bouchot du bas_ is about the size of a grain of flax, and is then called _naissain_. By the month of July it attains the size of a bean, and is called _renouvelain_, and is then ready for transplantation to a less favourable state of existence upon the _bouchot batard_, where the action of the tide would probably have retarded its growth if transplanted earlier. In the month of July, then, the _boucholeurs_ direct their canoes towards the isolated stakes, bearing the _semence_, now developed into the _renouvelain_, which they detach by means of a hook fixed to the end of a pole. Care is taken to gather such a quantity as they are able to transplant during low water—the only time when this operation can be carried on. The _semence_, placed in baskets, is transported by means of the canoe to the fences of the _bouchot batard_. The operation of fixing the _renouvelain_ upon the palisades of the _bouchot batard_ is called _la batrisse_. The _semence_, enclosed in bags of old net, is placed in all the empty spaces along the palisades until the hurdles are quite covered, sufficient space being left between the bags to admit of the growth of the young mussels. The bags soon rot and fall to pieces, leaving the young mussels adhering to the sides of the _bouchot_. The mussels by and by attain a large size, and grow so close to each other that the whole fence looks like a wall blackened by fire.