BUTTONS TO BE

Buttons-to-Be

Last week Science (weekly) reported that Dr. Max Mapes Ellis, professor of physiology at the University of Missouri, would carry on a winter's research in mussel-raising for the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries. Fresh water mussels, source of pearl buttons, spend the first six weeks of their lives attached to fish upon which they feed. After that the buttons-to-be break away, support themselves. Dr. Ellis has found a nutrient medium to take the place of the fish, containing all the substances a growing mussel needs. Next spring fishery officials hope to plant in the Mississippi valley 60 million juvenile mussels raised on Dr. Ellis' diet.

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