BULLETIN No. 6.

The Practice o

lfmw»lfsi;;

MADRAS FISHERIES BUREAU

THE PRACTICE OF

OYSTER CULTURE

AT ARCACHON

AND ITS LESSONS FOR INDIA.

BY

JAMES HORNELL, f.l.s.,

Maiine Assistant, Madras Fisheiies Bureau.

VOLUME I I.— BULLETIN No. 5.

MADRAS:
PRINTED BY THE SUPERINTENDENT, GOVERNMENT PRESS.

[Price, i rupee 6 annas. ] I 9 I o . [2 shillings.]

XL 2 1

CONTENTS.

Page
I. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4

II. The Physical conditions characterising Arcachon

Basin . . . . . . - . . . . . . . 4-7

III. The origin and development of ovster-culture at

Arcachon .. .. .. .. .. .. 7-19

IV. Present methods and conditions —

(1) The tenure under which oyster-parks are

held ; number and status of those engaged

in the industry . . . . . . . . . . 19-24

(2) Outline of the routine of oyster-culture .. 24-27

(3) Detailed description of cultural operations —
(a) Selection of suitable culture ground and

preparation of the surface .. .. 27-30

(/?) The form and preparation of tile-collec-
tors . . . . . . . . . . 30-33

(c) Installation of the collectors ; their

OVERSIGHT WHILE IN PLACE .. .. .. 33-39

(d) DETROQUAGE, THE SEPARATION OF BROOD

OYSTERS FROM THE COLLECTORS . . . , 39-42

(e) Rearing to marketable age . . . . 42-48
(/) Enemies and diseases .. .. .. 49-60

(g) Protective devices against enemies .. 60-65

(/() Expenses and profits . . . . . . . . 65-70

(z) Present condition and future prospects

OF THE INDUSTRY . . . . . . . . 70-74

V. Principal characteristics of other European

SYSTEMS OF CULTIVATION .. .. .. .. 75—79

VI. Applicability of Erench methods to oyster-
culture in India —
(a) Conditions prevailing in India .. .. 79-85

(/') The extent to which culture is possible ;
character of the control regulations
and assistance needful . . . . . , 85-90

I. ...

Audenge

Arcachon

A"

•* * ^ — -

/T- «?•»•' _

**■ *•- — —

-J

Cape Ferret

I-..."I4 IX'J
\". ".--« I.-J

La Teste

Scale in Kilometres
12 3 4 5

— k

FiO. 1. SKETCH PLAN of ARCACHON BASItf,

»

showing the extent of flats and foreshore uncovered at low water ,
spring tidea; the dotted parts indicate the3e areas.

S. O. / Reg, No. 6S6
1910. X Copies 10+453

THE PRACTICE OF OYSTER
CULTURE AT ARCACHON
AND ITS LESSONS
FOR INDIA.

I.— INTRODUCTION.

In view of the excellent quality of the edible oysters
found in many of the estuaries and backwaters of the
Madras Presidency, it was considered desirable by the
Honorary Director of Fisheries that details of the most
practical working methods employed in oyster-culture at
the present day should be obtained at first hand before
any experimental work on an extensive scale should be
tried locally. Advantage of my being home on leave in
the summer of last year (1909) was therefore taken and I
was requested to proceed to Arcachon for this purpose.

The choice fell upon Arcachon for three reasons : the
first because the bay or basin of Arcachon is the most
successful and beyond comparison the most extensive
oyster-culture district in France, the mother-land of
modern oyster-culture ; the second on account of the
singular aptitude of the Arcachonnais for culture in small
lots worked by the members of the lessee's family and
without the assistance of outside capital ; lastly, because
the natural conditions there agree broadly in physical
character with those prevailing in Madras waters. The
second consideration was perhaps the most weighty in
favour of Arcachon, for methods that are successfully
carried on by fisher people working independently on
what may be termed a small holding system are most
attractive to those whose aim is the creation of an indus-
try where no large outlay of capital is necessary, one

indeed which can be carried on by the small proprietor
and even by the fisherman and peasant with a minimum
dependence upon the capitalist. The practical interdic-
tion by the State of any monopoly in this industry at
Arcachon is one of the outstanding features of oyster-
culture there and this phase will be duly dealt with at
length.

My stay at Arcachon extended from 21st June to 7th
July 1909 ; during this period through the kindness of
Dr. Andre Hameau, President of la Societe Scienti-
fique d' Arcachon, and of Monsieur Louis Michelet, the
son of a pioneer in oyster-culture ranking perhaps next
after Coste, I was enabled to see everything possible and
of consequence pertaining to the industry. Dr. Hameau
placed the motor boat belonging to his Society at my
disposal in order to visit whatever oyster parks I might
wish and o-ave me facilities to examine at leisure the
valuable series of culture exhibits in the museum and
aquarium forming part of the fine Biological Station of
which Arcachon is deservedly proud. To the Rev.
Mr. Radcliff I am also greatly indebted for much patient
assistance while in regard to Monsieur Michelet I can
only say that I can neither sufficiently acknowledge his
extreme kindness in accompanying me day after day in
my wanderings nor express my admiration for the patience
he showed in answering my apparently interminable
string of questions. I remember, however, that I had
extreme difficulty in finding any further queries on the
last day of my stay. But everyone I came into contact
with afforded me assistance to the utmost ; this universal
courtesy and helpfulness to a stranger is most pleasant
to record, and the more remarkable as I went with no
introductions whatever.

The date chosen for the visit could not have been
better timed ; the weather during the spring had been
chill and inclement and in consequence cultural opera-
tions were several weeks later than usual. Usually all
liming of tiles is completed by the beginning of June and
the bulk of the collectors are laid down by the end

of that month. Last year liming operations were in full
swing up to the second week in July and I had a some-
what unlooked for opportunity of seeing every process
connected with the preparing of collectors, the liming and
stacking of the tiles, their transport in barges, often
towed by motor boats, to the parks and the placing and
filling of the collector frames along the margins of the
channels. The methods of protecting the young and the
injured till the shell thickens sufficiently to permit them
to be scattered over the surface of the " claires," the
various ingenious plans devised to protect the older
oysters from their many enemies, the raking and spread-
ing and general routine work of an oyster farm, and even
the methods employed to prepare and fit new sections of
the sea bottom for oyster-culture were all studied in
operation ; of the details of the more important I ob-
tained permanent records in the form of photographs,
some of which are used in the illustration of the
descriptive portion of the present report.

Arcachon I confess proved a revelation to me. Few,
I think, appreciate what strides this small Girondin
fishing district has made in the past few years ; few will
realize that it is now the second fishing port in France
as well as far ahead of all others in oyster-farming. It
owned in 1909, 43 steam fishing vessels mostly trawlers
(among them are some larger than any British-owned)
and has over 200 motor fishing boats engaged in the
sardine fishery. It may also be said to have become the
present-day centre of the French sardine cannino-
industry which is rapidly transferring its factories to this
district ; some dozen factories have been erected durino-
the last two years alone. Of small boats registered at
Arcachon, of which the majority are employed in fishino-
and in oyster-culture, the numbers run well above 9,000.
Except in respect of the trawling concerns and sardine
factories the local marine industries are conducted on the
family basis or upon the share system ; a feeling of quiet
prosperity is the dominant note in the villages and
hamlets. Comfortable cottages usually with a patch of

vines attached and fenced in with the parts of worn-out
oyster-cases (ambulances) are seen everywhere. On
enquiry one finds that the head of the family, almost
invariably a naval reservist (marin iuscrit), leases a small
oyster-park which the family labour usually suffices to
cultivate. The land around the cottage supplies most
of the daily requirements and often enough the industry
of the wife and children sets free the husband to earn
good wages by periodical voyages aboard deep-sea
fishing craft.

From such a land of sober, industrious, and thoughtful
people much may be learned and of what it has to teach
in regard to the culture of oysters the following pages
contain, I trust, all facts of essential importance.

II.— PHYSICAL CONDITIONS CHARACTER-
ISING ARCACHON BASIN.

The basin of Arcachon is a land-locked shallow bay
of great area lying about midway between the mouths of
the Garonne and Adour in the old province of Gascony ;
it lies about 35 miles westward from Bordeaux.

Its area at high tide is estimated at 15,000 hectares
or 37,066 acres ; at low tide the appearance wholly alters ;
extensive and numerous sand banks and mud flats emerge
in all directions and the water area becomes reduced to a
network of mud-bottomed channels. At ordinary springs
when there is a vertical range of about 10 feet fully 8,000
hectares are uncovered at low water, being more than
half the superficies of the bay at high tide. The shore
line measures 85 to 90 kilometres (about 55 miles). Its
outline is roughly that of an equilateral triangle (Fig. 1),
the narrow seaward entrance being situated at the
western extremity of the base, while the delta of the
only large river, the Leyre, is situated at the other end
of the southern side of this triangular bay ; at the
northern angle (apex) a small stream, the Lege, enters
the bay and in times of exceptional Hoods may exercise

considerable influence upon the channels in the north-
western section.

The sea outlet is extremely narrow, scarcely 3 kilo-
metres wide, and this again is so obstructed by sand
banks that the effective navigation channel has no
greater width than 170 yards. As a consequence of the
narrowness of the outlet and the obstruction caused by
the presence of extensive sand banks in the fairway, the
tidal outflow is retarded ; a considerable body of water
never drains out on any ebb and the tide cannot rob the
basin of its total spatfall as is liable to happen at less
favoured oyster centres where the ebb runs out through
wide and more or less unobstructed passages.

The banks of the basin are of shifting sand in the
western section, rising sharply into high dunes thickly
clothed with pine trees. In the eastern section the banks
are low and marshy, composed of marl and mud brought
down chiefly by the Leyre whereof the delta has advanced
according to historical evidence about 1 kilometre within
the last ten centuries. Advantage has been taken of
the network of small channels formed in this deltaic
region to construct numerous fish farms, reservoirs a
poisson, of considerable economic value and several of
very extensive area.

The flats or crassats which emerge at low tide are
composed of a basis of muddy sand, stiff and well
consolidated, overlaid generally by a thin layer of mud.
Towards the margin as the flats shelve abruptly into the
bounding channels the mud deepens to such an extent
that the workers have to use special shoes or sandals
having large wooden plates attached to enable them to
walk over it ; the higher levels of the flats form the bulk
of the oyster culture area, the firm surface facilitating
operations. Of recent years complaints have become
numerous of a marked increase in the amount of sediment
deposited upon many of these grounds particularly in the
eastern and northern sections of the basin and it would
appear as if the tidal scour were being interfered with by
some agency to such an extent as to retain in the basin

much sediment which, under former conditions, would be
swept out to sea. The deep channels separating the
flats appear to form the natural home of the local
oyster ; for many years Government looked upon such
beds as breeding reserves and limited fishing to one day
in the year and then only for some two hours.

The specific gravity of the water has no special
peculiarity. As may be expected it approximates to
that of the open sea in its seaward section under ordinary
conditions ; during and after rains the salinity and specific
gravity fall, as is but natural, especially in the northern
and eastern regions. Bashford Dean gives the specific
gravity as 1*0189 at the end of August (that of the open
sea being about i'026y), but does not state the locality
of his observation. Schmarda, on the other hand, is
quoted as giving the salinity as higher than that of the
Mediteranean. Such discrepancy is easily understood
by anyone who has studied any large land-locked body of
water having imperfect communication with the sea ; a
reading of the hydrometer taken in bays remote from
the mouth after prolonged continuance of dry weather
will furnish a high figure, whereas one in a locality which
is effected by the entrance of river or flood water will
naturally give a very low one during and immediately
after a spell of rainy weather. We are safe in stating
that the salinity varies considerably in different sections
of the basin and at different states of the tide and
according to the season of the year ; a statement proved
by the fact that two of the diseases to which the oyster
is subject are recognised at Arcachon as due in the one
case to an excessive amount of fresh water and in the
other to excessive salinity. The former, doufain, is well
known and dreaded as the cause of great mortality ; the
latter, due to abnormal scarcity of rain, is declared to be
exceptional or rather that it scarcely ever is so severe as
to cause much loss.

Taken generally it appears that upon the average the
specific gravity of the water of the basin is usually
slightly below that of the open sea.

The extremely narrow outlet to sea, the oblique
course of the passage, and the high dunes, covered with
a dense forest of closely-set pines, give almost perfect
immunity from the evil effects of sea-storms ; in this
peaceful security the routine of the culture of oysters
can be carried on whenever operations are necessary,
whatever the season of the year.

III.— THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF
OYSTER CULTURE AT ARCACHON.

An almost simultaneous exhaustion of natural oyster
banks took place on all the coasts of France about the
middle of last century and the causes which occasioned
this phenomenon have lessons specially worthy of atten-
tion in India to-day, where present conditions are
running parallel with those of France 60 years ago ;
it is noteworthy that the alarm caused by this general
failure of the oyster fishery was the spur which set the
machinery of Government to work to find a remedy and
thus, by giving to Coste and a number of less well-known
men whom his enthusiasm brought into the field, oppor-
tunities for prolonged experiment on a very extensive
scale such as only the resources and authority of a State
could supply, eventuated in the creation of a new and
most valuable industry for France. Until the beginning
of the 19th century the means of communication through-
out the greater part of France were so inefficient that
the distribution of oysters from coast centres was ex-
tremely difficult. In spite of this disability the increase
of luxury which characterised the 18th century entailed
such a drain on the resources of the natural oyster beds
that in the case of Arcachon the Parlement de Bordeaux
felt compelled in 1750 to order and maintain the suspen-
sion of all oyster fishing there for three years, with very
satisfactory results; in 1754 and 1759 the Amiraute de
Guienne passed orders forbidding for the future all fishing
during the spawning season from 1st April to 1st October

8

and prohibited the use of rakes in gathering the oyster
as well as the piling of them in heaps on the flats as this
entailed the death of all small oysters rejected by the
buyers. At this time the Arcachonnais, owing to the
difficulties of transport, were in the habit of opening the
oysters before despatch, sending away the flesh in various
receptacles which they transported to Bordeaux on pack
horses. Bullock carts and then lighter horse-drawn
vehicles followed at a somewhat later date enabling the
oysters to be transported in their shells in better condition
and to greater distances. The demand increased steadily,
more fishermen devoted themselves to the trade, the old
restrictive rules of the Bordeaux Parliament fell into
disuse during the stormy days of the Revolution and in
1800 we read that the annual despatch of oysters to Bor-
deaux amounted to 5,000 cart loads, each containing 60
baskets of an individual capacity of 250 oysters. The total
annual export was at this time as much as 75,000,000
oysters of a value of about 225,000 francs, i.e., at the
average rate of 30 centimes (3 annas) per 100. From
this time onwards unrestricted fishing, spurred on by
the large profits obtained, became ever more active.
Hundreds of boats dredged in the channels with feverish
haste ; hundreds of men tramped over the flats raking
together every sizeable oyster they could see and in 1836
even steam power was tried on a dredging boat. Year
by year saw a gradual degradation of the flats owing to
the continuous and unrestricted removal of the hard
material, almost entirely dead shells, to which the living
oysters were attached. No effort was made to return to
the beds any of this cultch ; year by year in the spawning-
season the spat had increasing difficulty to find foothold
and the set of spat began to decrease appreciably. In
1 83 1, an excellent trunk road was opened between the
basin and Bordeaux rendering transport still more easy
and entailing further stimulus to the reckless exploitation
of the oyster beds. About this time the value of the
oysters exported from Arcachon was still about 70,000
francs, a great falling off from the value in 1800. From

this date it fell more rapidly and the scarcity of oysters
became so pronounced that Government intervened
tardily and in 1840 reimposedthe regulations of 1754 and
1759 — measures too feeble and too long-delayed to be
effective even had they been properly enforced ; in point
of fact they were ignored.

In 1848 scarcely any oysters remained in the basin ;
the greater part of the former oystermen had turned their
attention to other callings ; and now when at last the
people of the district fully appreciated the extent of the
calamity their own lack of foresight had entailed, they
realized that no mere regulation of the fishery would
serve ; oyster beds were now practically non-existent in
the basin and it was universally acknowledged that the
only remedy would lie in the replenishing of the oyster
stock from outside sources and the adoption of some
simple cultural methods. Local committees were formed
and approached the Government for sanction to their
proposals. The principal of these requested permission
for private individuals to appropriate, under Government
lease, suitable sections of the old oyster fiats and there to
form artificial oyster beds or " pares " where oysters might
be grown and fattened ; the petitioners predicted that the
spat emitted by these parent oysters would settle on
adjacent flats and restore little by little the fertility of the
whole cultivable area of the basin.

The Government agreed to the proposals and in 1849
sanctioned the creation of a system of concessions where-
by suitable applicants should be permitted to occupy
portions of the foreshore and oyster flats for the purpose
of creating oyster parks. Although their demands were
thus granted in full the optimistic anticipations of the
local committee were slow of fulfilment ; no fishermen
came forward to take up concessions ; they did not care
to risk their small capital in an adventure where the
outlay was immediate and the profits deferred and even
problematical. Only a single concession was applied for
and that came from an outsider from Bordeaux who in
1849 tookLUp 4 hectares (10 acres) of ground and spread

IO

thereon a quantity of oysters collected from the channels.
This venture unfortunately was made during a bad year
when floods were exceptionally great ; the oysters died off
from doncain or fresh-water sickness ; in disgust the
holder renounced his concession. This failure still further
disinclined the former oyster fishers to risk time and
money in parkage experiments and it required the
enthusiasm and surprisingly great initial success of Coste
in his experiments on the coast of Brittany to overcome
this very natural caution and to inaugurate the new era ;
indeed it was high time seeing that in 1858 the total
produce of the natural oyster beds of the basin had
dwindled in value to less than a total of 1,000 francs
although the price has risen to 3 francs per 100!

Coste, whose guidance in this new development was
all important, was originally a professor in the College
de France who, in view of the exhaustion of the French
oyster beds, was commissioned by Government about
1853 to investigate the oyster question and to report upon
the advisability of employing artificial methods of
regeneration; especially was he to see whether the means
which the Italians employed to propagate oysters in Lake
Fusaro might not be applied in the French coastal
lagoons. What he saw in Italy fired his enthusiasm ; he
came back as the apostle of Italian methods and in
glowing pages set forth the prosperity that was about to
dawn on the French oyster culture industry. His
description of the Lake Fusaro methods was read with
avidity in every oyster depopulated locality ; many were
convinced and within the next five years numerous
experiments were in progress independently at various
centres. The first trials of the new system consisted in
the main of anchoring bundles of brushwood or fascines
as spat-collectors over the bottom in suitable bays where
a stock of parent oysters had been previously laid down.
The earliest experiments carried out by de Bon at St.
Servan at the mouth of the River Ranee were a brilliant
success giving within two years of the inception a revenue
to the local fishermen of over 35,000 francs. Until the

1 1

year 1859 Coste however had not sought more than the
restoration of prosperity to the old natural oyster beds,
even his vivid and exuberant imagination had not
realized the full possibilities possessed by methods of
artificially collecting oyster spat ; it was only when in
this year he was sent by the Emperor Napoleon to
Arcachon in response to urgent appeals for the favour
of his expert judgment that this further import of his
cultural methods was realized, and he perceived how in
shallow bays, as that of Arcachon, the actual farming
of oysters by hundreds of proprietors was easily within
reach.

Coste recommended Government example in the first
instance ; he proposed the formation of two Imperial
oyster parks to serve as model farms, to become at once
public seed beds and establishments for the collection
of spat in large quantities and for the trial of different
forms of spat collectors.

After examination of the proposals the Government
furnished the means to carry out this programme in its
entirety. The chosen surfaces were carefully prepared
and 100 cubic metres of cockle shells were spread in
order to consolidate the bottom ; 2 millions of stock
oysters were imported and about 200 plank collectors
installed. A body of watchmen were provided, housed
on pontoons moored on the beds, and two guard ships
were stationed in the bay. The results proved a brilliant
success, an immense fall of spat was obtained alike on
the collectors and on the imported stock and Coste
sounded still louder his paean of success "quel richesse
pour la France, et quel enseignment pour les peuples ! "
Every one rushed to take up concessions. To people the
parks thus opened over 10 millions of English and Spanish
breeding oysters were imported in i860 into Arcachon,
and the same year the parkers sold 3 millions ; the next
year the sales rose to 8 millions of a gross value of about
240,000 francs and in 1862 the revenue attained the
high figure of 376,000 francs. Prices all this time were
high and the oyster farmers in their haste to become

12

rich were selling off their imported stock more rapidly
than could be made good by the growth of the brood
obtained by the yet imperfect form of collector employed.
Several poor spatting- seasons supervened, the parks
became denuded by the reckless sale of breeding stock,
there being an insufficiency of bred oysters to replace
them ; depression and panic seized the smaller capitalists
and concessions were thrown up wholesale. Be it noted
particularly that the chief causes of this reverse were
lack of foresight and the imperfect and expensive form of
collector chiefly in use — the plank collector coated with
a form of pitch or resin which, when separated from the
planks, brought away the young oysters with it.

This disaster was a terrible set back to the young
industry and no further progress was made till an
unnamed seaman working on an oyster park near
Granville suggested to his employer the advantage
of utilizing half-round roofing tiles for the collection
of spat. Coste heard of this, recognized its great
possibilities and introduced the new method on an
extensive scale at Arcachon. It answered admirably
and proved far superior to the plank collector previously
in use there ; immense quantities of spat adhered to
the tiles laid out, but when they came to be detached
it was found impossible to separate them without whole-
sale destruction. Even to break up the tiles and leave
the young attached to fragments entailed great loss
partly however compensated by the high price obtainable
then for oysters ; a pause in development ensued till
Dr. Kemmerer of the He de Re overcame this difficulty
by partly coating the tiles, before placing them in
position, with a mixture of quicklime, sand and defi-
brinated blood to which he added broken shells and
fragments of wood in order to increase the surface area.
A little later he modified this procedure by interposing a
sheet of paper between the tile and the layer of mortar.
Then when the spat had attached, the whole covering of
the tile, paper, mortar and spat, was detached with the
greatest ease and sub-divided as required.

Ingenious as this was and successful when great care
was exercised in its operation, it failed as a business
proposition on account of the great amount of labour and
time necessitated to render it successful. It remained
for an ingenious Arcachon mason to interest himself
in the subject and think out a simpler and more econo-
mical method. Michelet was this inventor's name and
it is worthy of remembrance as by this and other ol
his practical devices oyster culture passed from the
experimental stage into a settled and stable industry
with a regular routine of work theoretically and econo-
mically sound. But simple though we know his final
device to be it was only after severe disappointments
suffered during the first two seasons (1863 and 1864)
he engaged in these experiments that unqualified success
crowned his efforts in 1865. Ignoring the details of his
earlier attempts, we need note only that the final
process which he invented was the covering of the tile
with a friable coating of lime and sand in definite
proportions mixed to a creamy consistence. Originally
Michelet applied this to the surfaces of the tiles with
a trowel ; later, the simplification of merely dipping the
tiles into the composition made rather thinner was
introduced.

The liming of tiles is to-day carried on exactly as
Michelet perfected the process in 1865 and 1866, and
tiles thus coated are to-day recognized as the only
satisfactory form of spat collector suitable for the condi-
tions prevailing in Arcachon basin.

Coste, whose genius does not seem to have been
that of the inventor, was quick to see that the problem
which, simple though it appeared, had baffled many
intellects for several years, was at last solved satisfac-
torily ; he hurried off to Arcachon and in his usual
effusive manner wrung Michelet's hands the while he
praised him, saying " I congratulate you most truly, for
you have understood my ideas better than any one else."
From this time we hear little of Coste and though it is
to him in the first instance that the enormous oyster

14

industries of France and Holland owe their existence, yet
France forgot him and he died in poverty and neglect.

Michelet henceforward devoted himself to the work
of perfecting the details of local oyster culture ; by his
process of liming the tiles used as collectors, when the
brood oysters are large enough to be removed from
the surfaces to which they adhere, instead of the little
shells being injured in great numbers as in previous
methods, the expert use of a chisel-shaped knife causes
the little oysters to peel off with the flakes of crumbling
mortar. By the little patch of lime which adheres in the
hinge region these oysters are ever after readily distin-
guishable from those from natural beds.

Michelet completed his good work by devising
"ambulances," which eventually developed into misses,
ostreophiles, shallow boxes having frames filled in with
wire-netting to serve as top and bottom respectively.
In these "hospitals" as we may term them the brood
oysters were left for some months before being laid
out in claircs or shallow rearing ponds and in separate
hospitals were put all individuals that suffered injury
during removal from the tiles, a process known in
France as detroguage.

Thanks to these improvements, oyster culture under-
went rapid development and expansion ; all abandoned
concessions were reoccupied and many new ones were
taken up ; the results of artificial spat collection by
means of limed tiles in 1865 and 1866 proved this
method a practical success and, in spite of a temporary
check from 1867 to 187 1 due to several exceptionally
frosty winters and the distraction of war, the industry has
steadily progressed till to-day practically the whole of
the brood oysters reared and sold every year at Arcachon
are the produce of the millions of adult oysters being
reared and fattened in private parks. Throughout their
whole life the 300,000,000 oysters annually produced at
this centre live under control ; they are tended with
continuous care ; they are shielded from enemies, the
young or sickly go into creches and convalescent homes,

15

the large and small are raked and cleaned as carefully as
the flowers in any garden plot ; all their life they live
under artificial conditions and form perhaps the best and
most perfected instance of what can be done by one of
the youngest of the sciences — aquiculture, the cultivation
of the economic products of the seas and of inland waters.

As a consequence of the continuous increase in the
success obtained by the adoption of the new methods, the
French Government in 1872 decided that their duties of
tutelage might cease, the new industry having advanced
to a degree of perfection which enabled it to walk alone
for the future ; accordingly they made over to the
Societe central dc sauvetage, the French equivalent,
I believe, of our National Life-boat Institution, the whole
of the Government experimental oyster farms then
containing more than three millions of tiles.

Thanks to millions of foreign oysters imported into
the basin to furnish spat for culture purposes between
1859 and 1865, the old oyster beds in the channels and
on unoccupied flats improved greatly ; something of their
former prosperity was eventually restored to them. The
authorities, warned by the past, guarded these natural
beds with the greatest rigour ; fishing upon them was
interdicted except on days and at the hours specified
after an annual examination by a local commission of
experts. Usually the fishing was limited to one or at
the most two days per annum and all cultch and im-
mature oysters had to be returned to the beds. From
i860 to 1872 these public beds or common grounds as
we call them in England gave more than 80,000,000
oysters obtained partly by the dredge in the channels,
partly by hand collection on the flats. In several years
the value of the oysters fished amounted to over 150,000
francs.

From 1872 as oyster culture extended and became
reduced gradually to an exact science with results sur-
passing the most optimistic anticipations, less and less
attention was given to the fishery on the common
grounds ; this comparative neglect proved detrimental

i6

to their well-being, mud began to accumulate and buried
great quantities of oysters, weeds and other marine
growths helped in the destruction, smothering the oysters
or intercepting the food particles and entailing semi-
starvation ; finally the fouling of the valves with mud
and sea growths prevented satisfactory spat falls. Thus
the reproductive power of the beds was destroyed. The
following table of the number of oysters fished from the
common grounds from 1885- 1900 shows the gradual
deterioration of these beds, due be it noted not to over-
fishing but rather from lack of the cleaning which
moderate and regular fishing ensures. The figures
should be compared with those in the table on the
opposite page exhibiting the wonderful development of
the cultural industry as apart from the unsown, unfarmed
produce of the natural beds.

Produce of the Natural Oyster Beds in Arcachon Basin
from 1885-1909.

Year.

Hours the
fishery

was open.

Quantities of oysters
fished.

Value of the oysters
fished.

Total
value.

By dredge.

By hand.

By dredge.

By hand.

Hrs.

Francs.

Francs.

Fiancs.

1885 ...

3

1,407,700

11,890,250

8,787

58,335

67,122

1887 ...

3

1,325,920

2,772,000

9,435

15,228

24.663

1890 ...

3

1,085,6R0

...

10,972

...

10,972

1893 ...

1

816,500

...

8,165

...

8,165

1895 ...

1

and U
respectively.

423,800

1,402,900

2,789

8,698

11,487

1898 ...

2

835,850

...

8,370

...

8,370

1900 ...

0

Total ...

...

1,994,400

...

10,191

10,191

5,895,430

18,119,550

48,518

92,452

1,40,970

In view of this condition of affairs, the authorities in
1903, decided that the value of the open fishery had
become so reduced and so little heeded by the local fisher
community that it was not worth the expenses it entailed ;

17

they accordingly decreed its suppression ; no voice was
raised in protest and at the present time the natural
oyster beds in the basin are entirely ignored ; all effort
is concentrated upon oyster culture truly so-called. The
following table exhibits in tabular form the statistics of
the growth of this industry from the year when it com-
menced in reality.

Table illustrating the growth of the Arcachon Oyster Industry
from 185Q-IQOJ (after Boubes).

[AT.B. — The figures relate to O. edulis alone.]

Area

Average

Average

Year.

Number of
oysters sold.

Value in
francs.

cultiva-
ted in
hectares.

Number

of
parks.

Number ol
oysters

reared per
hectare.

price

per 1,000

in

francs.

1859

700,000

28,000

112

1860

19,900,000

726,000

800

...

24,875

...

1861

18,105,000

724,OCO

...

...

...

1862

6,600,000

204,000

...

• • •

1863

4,831,000

193,000

...

...

1864

10,873,000

434,000

...

...

...

1865

10,854,000

434,160

1,000

297

10,854

40

1866

7,052,000

282,070

301

...

40

1867

4,185,000

66,960

...

340

16

U68-

8,599,000

318,163

434

...

37

1869

7,519,000

338,355

464

45

1870

0,541,000

379,378

1,500

485

45,082

58

1871

4,997,000

274,835

•

761

55

1872

10,796,000

539,800

...

1,278

50

1873

25,714,000

1,054,274

1,438

...

41

1874

42,542,000

1,914,390

...

2,413

...

45

1875

112,705,000

2,817,625

2,500

2,621

25

1876

196,885,000

3,937,700

2,730

23

1877

202,000,000

4,444 0C0

...

3,446

22

1878

170,000,000

4,4C 0,000

3,561

...

25

1879

161,000,000

4,025,000

...

3,615

...

25

1880

195,477,00j

4,886,000

...

3,822

25

1F81

210,310,' 00

3,893,000

3,907

...

18

1882

268,082,000

5,897,000

3,971

22

1883

192,872,000

4,821,800

4,211

...

25

188*

169,342,000

3,386,840

4,773

...

26

1885

178,359,000

2,675,3^5

5,200

4,901

50,000

15

i8

Table illustrating the growth of the Arcackon Oyster Industry
from 1859-1907 — continued.

[At.B. — The figures relate to O. edulis alone.]

Area
cultiva-
ted in
leclares.

Average

Average

Year.

Number of
oysters sold.

Value in
francs.

Number

of

parks.

SJumber of

oysters

reared per

hectare.

price

jer 1,000

in

francs.

1S86

236,276,000

2,835,240

4,015

12

1887

212,427,000

3,1^0,405

4,111

25

1888

236,982,000

3,105,600

4,200

4.235

49,296

20

1889

247,463,000

3,727,455

4,500

4,500

55,355

16

1890

258,067,000

3,503,305

4,700

4,384

49,700

14

1891

373,613,000

4,489,438

5,000

5,699

66,710

12

1892

, 540,283,000

6,466,000

4,700

5,778

110,060

19

1893

442,955,000

6,209,325

3.800

5,887

108,935

14

1894

424,726,000

5,620,870

3,444

6,020

119,609

13

1895

446,986,000

4,022,874

3,348

5,824

135,535

13

1896

582,880,000

4,463,040

3,351

5,891

173,790

11

1897

398,693.000

3,701,930

3,342

5,901

119,299

10

1898

319,772,500

2,807,983

3,311

5,901

96,579

11-50

1899

299,484,000

2,898,828

3,301

5,923

90,722

10

1900

318,890,000

3,708,304

3,247

5,867

98,232

11

1901

291,255,000

3,616,539

3,375

5, 379

84,333

12

1902

311,544,000

3,425,861

3 ,400

5,943

91,630

9-75

1903

299,550,000

3,786,215

3,250

6,750

93,5 U

10- 50

1904

75,684,000

675,021

3,615

6,617

22,160

11

1905

420,000.000

3.380,000

3,095

6,006

135,705

12

1906

261,344,000

1.577,310

3,424

4,580

70,325

16-50

1907

352,557,000

2,659,460

2,833

3,895

121,448

13-25

The foregoing tabulation deals, as stated, solely with
the product of the culture of the oyster indigenous to
the coasts of France and England, Ostrea edulis. Of
late years a formidable rival, the Portuguese oyster,
O. angulata, has been largely laid down and cultivated
in France ; its popularity and sales have been great and
are increasing as it has the advantage of the native in
everything" save flavour ; it grows more rapidly, is larger,
more robust in constitution, requires a minimum of care
under cultivation, and finally, has enormous reproductive
powers. The mass of the people who could not usually

19

afford to pay the prices asked for the indigenous product
welcomed the Portuguese for its low price. Its mediocre
flavour they willingly overlooked.

For a long time the oyster farmers of Arcachon,
specialists in the culture of the home species, would have
nothing to do with the Portuguese. They feared it, and
made every endeavour to exclude it from the parks. Of
late years, the increase of consumption has consisted
almost entirely of the cheaper qualities ; the cheap and
tasty Portuguese was always sure of a ready sale,
whereas the demand for the higher priced native was
frequently so slow that the Arcachon oyster farmers
found their stocks accumulating. In the end and against
their will they had to oo with the current and about
1901 began to cultivate the foreign species. In 1903 the
first lots were put on the market, totally 2,740,000 of a
value of 25,200 francs for the year. In 1906, the quantity
sold was still small, only some 5^ millions, but the next
year, 1907, a sudden increase took place, no less than
95,760,000 being sold, a quantity exceeding one-fourth of
the total number of natives sold in the same year, the
value being 809,335 francs or nearly one-third of the
total value of the sales of native oysters in the same
period.*

IV.— PRESENT METHODS AND
CONDITIONS.

(1) Tenure under which ovster farms are held ;

number and status of those engaged

in the industry.

As is customary in civilized countries the law in
France recognizes most clearly the exclusive right of the
State to all land lying between tide-marks ; in addition

* This would seem to exhibit the Portuguese as being sold ?.t a higher price
individually than the natives, a seeming contradiction of previous statements ; the
discrepancy is due to the fact that a great part of Arcachon natives are sold
young for fattening whereas the Portuguese visually are sold only when of full
edible size.

20

to such surface, land bare at low tide, the foreshore
proper, it recognizes the state as sole proprietor of all
submerged areas bathed by sea water whether in estua-
ries, bays, or the territorial water margining the coasts.
In France this " maritime public domain" is considered
inalienable ; it may neither be sold nor otherwise dis-
posed of. The State indeed is not the proprietor, being
rather the custodian of what is and must remain a
possession reserved for the public benefit. So far as
possible the nationals of the State should have free usage
of it but no user under ordinary conditions may possess
special right over another or exclude others from the
usage or access he himself is allowed.

However, temporary and privileged occupation is
conceded under special circumstances on payment of an
annual rental to compensate the public at large for
deprivation of the right of free access and usage of the
area so occupied.

During the period when oyster culture was passing
through its experimental stages, the State, to favour the
infancy of the industry, gave these concessions free
under the stipulation that the concessionaires should be
either naval reservists or be working in partnership with
one or more of such privileged class.

This system lasted till 1873, when it was decreed
that naval reservists alone should have the privilege of
free oyster farms ; all others were forced to pay the
rentals assessed by Government officers.

At the present time no rent-free concessions exist
except a few held by the original concessionaires under
the old regulations ; from all other occupiers of oyster
parks in the maritime public domain, annual rentals are
exacted varying in accordance with the situation of the
ground. Those parks occupying positions considered
the most favourable for oyster spatting and growth are
charged 54 francs per hectare (= about Rs. 13 per
acre); those in the second category, 45 francs (Rs. 11
per acre), while the third and least suitable grounds pay
36 francs pe*' hectare (Rs. 9 per acre). Preference is

21

still given to naval reservists as they or the widows of
such men have the first claim on any oyster ground
that may be abandoned or on any area hitherto un-
occupied. Only in default of an application from a
reservist or a reservist's widow may any outsider obtain
a concession — even then, naval and military pensioners
have preference, and after then civil pensioners, and
non-pensioned soldiers and officials ; those outside these
categories come last and even then, it is laid down
that preference shall be given to those whose past
conduct promises best for the management of the con-
cession.

As is usual in State matters in France a great
number of formalities have to be gone through when
applying for a concession. In actuality no unreasonable
difficulties appear to be placed in the way of applicants ;
the administration is paternal, if formal ; indeed I believe
the authorities ignore the provisions of many of the
older laws which deal with oyster fishing and which
were made before the development of oyster culture was
dreamed of, for if enforced these would be the occasion
of much hardship and loss to the concessionaires. Such
laws as are out of date should of course be abrogated or
amended ; the license holders should not be at the mercy
of official benevolence and be liable at law to severe
pains and penalties for acts which are not offences under
the changed conditions which now prevail. Some day
no doubt the many laws relating to oyster fishery and
culture will be consolidated and brought up to date ;
meanwhile the local officials who understand what is
justifiable and what is not in the conduct of oyster parks
enforce what regulations they think should be upheld and
forget the existence of the others — an anomalous posi-
tion for the administration ; La Gironde however is a
department where the people are endowed with more
than the average of sober common-sense — witness their
action in the Great Revolution — and the discrepancy
between the precept and the practice of the law disturbs
no one but the critical jurist.

22

Free sale of a concession is nominally interdicted by
the law ; a concession of a portion of the public domain
may be resumed at any time by the State and no pre-
scriptive right can be claimed in it as it is inalienable by
the State. In practice, the local administration permits
a concessionaire to cede his park to another provided the
price paid comprises only the value of the cultural equip-
ment///as- the value of the labour expended in improving
the ground and fitting it for the purposes of oyster
culture. As a matter of fact this rule is evaded and
might as well be abrogated ; it leads frequently to
duplicity — one price is named in the contract offered for
official approval, another, the real one, is arranged
privately between the parties ; all the law can do is to
render illegal any suit in the courts for payment of the
additional price stipulated for in the secret contract.

In 1908 out of a total shore-dwelling population of
about 30,000 distributed in the towns and villages along
the margin of Arcachon basin, not less than one-third
(10,000 to 1 1,000) are more or less dependent on oyster
culture for their living. The greater number of the
fishermen own one or more oyster parks and are practi-
cally all enrolled for active service in the fleet if required,
i.e., are inscrits maritimes ; of these concessionaires
there were 1,123 in 1908, the remainder of lessees of all
classes numbering 562, a total of 1,685, wn0 owned
between them the 3,895 parks occupied in that year in
the Arcachon basin. The area covered by these 3,895
concessions aggregated 2,833 hectares representing an
average of 1*375 hectare or about 3 J acres each. From
this fact and from the status of the majority of the
holders, it is obvious that small holdings are the rule ;
indeed the capitalist concessionaire who exploits large
oyster parks entirely through hired labour is a rarity and
invariably belongs to the district. No outside capital
is present and the joint stock company is neither known
nor required.

In Arcachon, as in France generally, oyster culture
is an industry of small holdings worked as far as possible

23

by the labour of the holder and his family. The opera-
tions are varied, and several are such as may be carried
on by the older children ; the wife looks after most of
the operations on the park itself, raking and re-arranging
the oysters each low tide ; she also helps in the liming
of the tiles, sees to the separation of the brood oysters
from the tile-collectors and gathers and prepares the
oysters for sale. Incidentally she is the family treasurer
and usually has to be consulted in all money transactions.
The children assist their mother according to their
ability, in their early years cleaning tiles and washing
the oysters and gradually relieving the parents as they
grow up.

Cultural operations are in the main carried on by
female labour, the men being called upon chiefly for the
heavier work, such as the transport of tiles to the parks,
the fixing and packing of the collectors and the repair
and renewal of the fences and enclosures. The duties
of which women and children are capable although
intermittent continue more or less the year round ; those
requiring the labour of men are seasonal and of limited
duration. Hence while oyster culture is the sole or
principal occupation of some parkers, for many, probably
the majority, it constitutes a supplementary calling,
seeing that the bulk of the work can be carried on by
the family and that the actual labour on the park is
possible only at low tide. At high tide and when the
weather is stormy the parker is comparatively free and
may and usually does carry on another trade. The bulk
of the parkers are fishermen and with the recent and
sudden development of a great sardine industry at
Arcachon, most of the parkers are engaged in this
fishery — indeed in view of the poor prices for oysters
prevailing of late years a number of parkers sold off their
stocks and, whenever possible, their concession rights
as well in 1907- 1909 to obtain money to purchase the
motor driven boats essential to a profitable prosecution
of the new fishery. Many were unable to find buyers
for their rights apart from their stock and in such cases

24

abandoned them, one of the chief causes leading to a
reduction of the number of parks in operation in 1909.

We see then that at Arcachon where the condition
and conduct of oyster farming" are typical of the course
of the industry in other districts, small holdings are the
rule ; the aim of the French administration is and always
has been to facilitate the acquisition and operation of
oyster parks by men of small means and preferably those
whose services are earmarked for service in the fleet for
defence of the country or who have already performed
such service. In no other country does such considera-
tion and foresight exist ; in almost all others the
State's right to the littoral is at the disposition of the
highest bidder and no safeguards there exist to prevent
capitalists from adding park to park till they control the
whole industry of the district and paralyse the initiative of
men of limited means. In England, Holland, Portugal,
and Germany the oyster industry has the same story to
tell ; how wealthy companies and corporations control
the beds and culture Qrounds and how the man who in
France would be an independent and free unit knowing
no master but the needs of his family, is replaced by the
hired labourer, who, usually with no interest beyond his
daily wage in the prosperity of the work he is engaged
upon, obeys orders and has the feelings and faults of the
man living in dependence upon the favour of a master.

(2) Outline of the routine of oyster-culture ;
definition of terms.

In spring the preparation of the tiles which will be
used in June and July for the collection of spat — the
free swimmino- larvae of the ovster — is taken in hand in
the intervals of household duties or of more pressing
work. First the tiles are cleaned and then are limed, a
process known as chantage, work generally done by
women or by girls. On their part the men see to the
repair of the collector cases which are destined to
receive the limed tiles. Every year the cases receive a
fresh coat of coal tar but this is usually a -special trade,

25

the cases beino- given out to be tarred on contract. As
soon as examination of adult oysters shows that spawn-
ing will take place before long, the clean limed tiles are
transported to the parks. Flat bottomed barges spe-
cially built for this purpose are employed by the more
prosperous cultivators, but the majority are content to
use the little boats (pinasses) they use in fishing and
ferryage to and from the parks. With the great deve-
lopment of motor boats that has taken place since 1906,
those who can afford such, employ a motor pinasse as a
tuQ-, and a strino- of small boats laden with limed tiles in
tow of a palpitating motor-launch is an every day sight
during June and July. Then ensues a busy time in the
placing in position and securing of the ruches, crate-like
cases into which when ready the limed tiles are packed.
This work is finished in normal years by the middle of
July — often indeed by the end of June. From then till
the month of October the women and older girls of the
family are capable of tending the daily well-being of the
oysters in stock, re-spreading and raking and cleaning
up generally. If need be the men in their spare time do
any needful repairs to the protective devices employed
in the park against enemies, fishes chiefly.

Towards the end of September and during the month
of October a considerable amount of attention is given
by careful cultivators to the cleaning of the spat-covered
tiles ; they gently brush the brood oysters, now about
3 months old, to detach any living growths — seawreeds,
ascidians, sponges and the like.

During winter the routine work of cleaning and
raking goes on in fine weather together with the trans-
port ashore and preparation of such fully grown oysters
as may be disposed of.

Detroquage, the harvesting of the brood crop,
takes place in the early part of the year. This is
separation of the brood oysters from the tiles and is
carried out during the first favourable spell of fine
weather when the growth of the young oysters is seen
to have progressed sufficiently. Under very favourable
4

26

conditions it may take place as early as January but
the height of the detroquage season may be said to be
in March and April. When this operation is decided
upon, all hands have to take part. The husband trans-
ports the tiles to his oyster-shed ashore, the wife, if
possible, takes charge of the further operations. With
the aid of the children if available, or if not, with
hired female help, she sees to the stripping from the
tiles of the young oysters now about one inch in
diameter.

After separation from the tiles the oysters are washed,
cleaned, and classed into two sizes, those damaged in
the process of stripping being kept apart from the
others.

All are then transported back to the park and so far as
the means of the cultivator permit are put into oyster cases
called caisses ostrdophiles or ambulances (hospitals) where
they stay till they are sufficiently grown to withstand most
of the dangers they will experience when spread over the
open surface of the park. In order to raise large numbers
upon a limited area, constant attention has therefore to be
given to raking and re-spreading and cleaning. A rough
tide heaps the oysters along the leeward side of the park
fencing and if not re-spread much loss would occur.
For this reason also the fences and borders of the parks
require constant supervision, both to keep out enemies
and to keep in the oysters.

Under the regulations governing oyster-culture at
Arcachon, no oyster may be exported under 5 centimetres
(two inches) in diameter. This size is reached usually
in from 18 months to 2 years time, when the oyster
farmer usually sells off the greater part of his stock to
make room for the new lot of young oysters he has
secured upon his spat-collectors. Some cultivators keep
a portion of their stock another 6 to 1 2 months before
selling, although the mortality is considerable during
this interval — prices at the age of 2 J and 3 years being
naturally much higher than when the oyster is but
18 months old.

27

Few cultivators rear their oysters to a size at which
they may go into consumption, as Arcachon is not so
well suited to this phase of the industry as many other
oyster centres ; for instance an oyster sold at two years
old to a Marennes culturist and farmed for one year in
its new abode is of a size of shell and flesh at the end of
this time such as is attained at Arcachon only at the end
of four and even five years of age. For this reason the
bulk of the culture at Arcachon limits itself to what is
termed demi-elevage, the production of brood oysters and
their care till old enough to sell to oyster farmers whose
parks are more favourably situated for fattening.

A noteworthy feature in the regulations governing
oyster culture at Arcachon is the prohibition which
exists against the sale of any oysters between 15th May
and 1 st September, a regulation which is a grievance
and a hardship to many parkers, but which is enforced
with a view to obviate any danger which might otherwise
accrue to the industry were there to be any great de-
pletion of the stock of mature oysters during the spatting
season.

(3) Detailed Description of Cultural Operations.

(a) Selection of suitable culture ground and the
preparation of the surface of the park.

One of the chief characteristics of the Arcachon basin
is the extreme variability in cultural value of the ebb-dry
flats whereon oyster farming is conducted. Three factors
conduce to this, the nature of the soil, the salinity of the
laving water, and the degree of current wash experienced.
This fact is also recognized by the administration which
grades the parks into three classes paying annual rentals
proportionate to the assessed value from a cultural stand-
point, 54, 45 and 36 francs respectively per hectare.
Quite often one side or one corner even of a small flat
may be specially adapted for the collection of spat while
the side or corner opposite may be of little or no value.

28

Ground most suitable for the collection of spat is
usually found wherever a strong current courses along
the margin of a flat or crassat. Wherever such a scour
is specially well marked, collectors there placed keep
clean and free from glairy sediment and so present
suitable surfaces for spat attachment ; this appears to me
the special virtue of this position. Usually the location
for the crate-like collector cases solely employed at
Arcachon has a soft mud bottom, so soft that the parkers
wear wooden plates attached to the feet to prevent sinking
too deeply. This bottom requires no preparation other
than the driving in of six short piles to serve as a
foundation for each collector-crate which it is intended
to install. Each pile is driven from 2 to 3 feet into the
mud, its upper end projecting a few inches above the
surface.

For rearing the brood oysters after stripping from
the tiles, the higher and central portions of the flats are
best adapted whenever the surface is firm and not excess-
ively muddy. At the present day practically all the suit-
able lots have long been in occupation and are now in
prime condition. Prior to the advent of culture and when
natural oyster beds still flourished in the basin, the
greater proportion of these flats were occupied by oysters
forming" extensive areas of hard well-consolidated surface
from the long continued accumulation of the dead shells
of former generations. The reckless and unrestrained
exploitation that occurred during the first half of last
century gradually reduced the thickness of this stratum
of hard material ; the dead and living shells forming the
bed were the only cultch for spat to attach to, and with
the inroads made on the bank every year so large an
amount of this natural cultch was removed ashore and
never replaced that the surface of the flats suffered
appreciable degradation and very great deterioration
from a cultural standpoint. To improve the areas
selected by Coste as " State model farms " large quantities
of cockle shells were spread over the surface to help to
consolidate it. Fortunately however it was found that if

29

care be exercised in working the park, the muddy or
rather clayey sand forming" the upper surface and core of
the best flats is sufficiently consolidated to require little
or no artificial aid to constitute it suitable to bear a load
of growing oysters. In practice the parker takes care
that the oysters arc frequently raked to the surface when
the ground is rather soft ; the workers also take pre-
cautions to avoid trampling the oysters into the mud,
having plate attachments to their shoes under such
circumstances. For rearing brood to the size of 2 to i\
inches in diameter the ebb-dry flats of the central and
south sections of the basin are used ; those of the north
and west are too muddy to be of value while those along
the western shore of the basin and towards the seaward
passage where the salinity of the water is appreciably
higher, form a separate class limited in area and
number and are devoted almost entirly to the purposes
of fatten inq-.

The whole of the western shore of the basin is sandy,
a long narrow dune-formed peninsula separating the
basin from the sea. A century ago it would have* been
madness to form parks along its landward margin as the
prevailing westerly winds were at that time moving the
dunes eastwards, constantly invading the littoral.
To-day the march of the dunes has been arrested by
planting them up with forests of pine trees ; the oyster-
farmer may now in comparative security possess himself
of the littoral, fence it in and prepare it for oyster culture.
Along the sandy margin especially in the section towards
Cape Ferret, the headland which forms the northern
bound of the passage seawards, oysters are found to
thrive and fatten very much more rapidly than on the
sections more remote from the sea. In consequence it
pays the parker to incur much heavier capital ex-
penditure in clearing and preparing the ground here than
elsewhere. And much has to be done, for here no level
flat exists, but a long sloping foreshore covered with
banks of arid sand unsuitable on account of its loose
and shifting nature to form park bottom. It happens

however that a firm and well consolidated surface some-
what akin to that forming the core of the central Mats is
found beneath the masses of sand which westerly winds
have piled upon the littoral. As is to be expected this
substratum contains a larger proportion of sand and
smaller quantity of mud than is found in its parallel
layer on the Mats. To form a park on the littoral of the
Cape Ferret peninsula, the stiff substratum has to be
exposed by the laborious and costly removal of the
overlying sand, a work to be faced only by those who
can afford to incur such heavy capital expenditure. The
work has been faced in thorough fashion ; hopper barges
have been built capable of loading large quantities of
sand and to facilitate disposal of the spoil, drop-doors
of primitive but effective pattern are fitted in the bottom.
At one end a little cabin is provided for the accommo-
dation of the workpeople (Plate i, figure 8). Parks
formed in this manner are esteemed most highly, and some
have changed hands at as much as 40,000 francs per
hectare while the proprietor of one which I inspected
informed me that he would not sell his under 50,000
francs the hectare ; at this he would even be loth to sell
as on the one hand the cost of bringing the ground into
working order is very heavy and on the other the value
of parks such as this for rapidly rearing and fattening
oysters is correspondingly high.

(5) The form and preparation of the Collectors.

The tiles employed at Arcachon as spat collectors
are large and massive, markedly convex along their
length. The pattern is the same as that of the so-
called " country tiles " inordinary use in India, but of
larger dimensions. That in use at Arcachon is the
" Gironde " tile, a variety longer, broader, and thicker
than the ordinary pattern employed for roofing purposes,
characteristics which experience has demonstrated to
render this pattern more suitable for oyster culture
where strength is a chief desideratum.

3i

The accepted dimensions are, length 20 inches, width
at the wide end 7 inches, at the narrow end 5 inches.
The concave side is purposely left rough and uneven with
the sand of the mould still adhering, while the upper or
convex surface is smoothed by hand in the usual way.
They are very hard, well baked tiles and their weight and
strength permit of considerable rough usage with com-
parative impunity ; annual loss from breakage is never-
theless heavy and has to be reckoned as one of the
annually recurring expenses to be faced. Under ordinary
circumstances the annual loss of tiles through breakage
and other causes cannot be reckoned at less than from 10
to 15 per cent. The cost varies according to the demand
between 45 to 50 francs (Rs. 27 to 30) per 1,000.

To prepare the tiles in the manner most suitable
to ensure a satisfactory settlement upon their surfaces of
the oyster larvae when in the free-swimming stage, they
have to receive if new an initial wash of pure lime and
then upon this a coating of mortar ; if the tiles have
been previously used no lime wash is again necessary,
it suffices to coat with mortar alone. This process of
liming (chaulage) is carried out usually by women. A
hogshead or large barrel is used as a mixing tub. The
mixture used in giving the preparatory coating to new
tiles is simply whitewash made rather thin, pure lime
mixed with water to a thin creamy condition and only
sufficiently thick to leave quite a thin even wash on
both surfaces of the tiles after they are dipped into the
mixture. The second coating, unlike the first, must be
repeated annually. The mixture employed remains the
same as that introduced by Michelet in 1865, modified
in the relative proportion of the components, lime and
sand, according" to the individual opinion of the user.
The standard composition as given in works dealing
with oyster culture in France is always given as 1
of lime to 2 of sand. Practice is variable and while
some use the standard proportions, others increase the
ratio of the lime and a few that of the sand. Mr. Louis
Michelet, who, as the son of the inventor, has special claim

32

to attention, believes that two parts of lime to one of
sand give a deposit of ideal friability, a coating- which
flakes off in the most satisfactory manner when the time
comes to detach it from the tile with the oysters adherent
to it. When more sand than 2 to i of lime is employed,
the coatino- is liable to become too hard and in flaking- it
from the tiles such violence has to be used that too great
a proportion of wounded oysters results. On the other
hand, a mixture containing a high percentage of sand
appeals to the economical spirit of the poorer oyster cul-
turists as lime costs about Rs. 17 per cubic metre against
sand which may be had close at hand for the labour of
transport. Hence we have such variations in the pro-
portions used as equal parts of lime and sand ; ^ lime,
§ sand ; § lime, ^ sand ; at the extreme of the scale
we have men using 3 of lime to 1 of sand and others
1 of lime to 3 of sand ! Where lime is readily procur-
able at a low cost and when the industry is flourishing
probably f lime to ^ sand is the proportion most
satisfactory but when conditions are such that every
small economy is of importance, as would be the case in
India then a reversal of the ratio (J lime, § sand) is
most likely to prove preferable. In this proportion
a cubic metre of quicklime and two cubic metres of
sand when mixed to a proper consistence is reckoned
to be sufficient to coat 12,000 tiles.

This coating of mortar was originally applied by
Michelet (who was a mason by trade) by hand, much as
a mason lays a layer of mortar preparatory to placing
another brick or stone. This was found too tardy a
method and it was seen that if the mortar were made
more fluid a satisfactory coating could be obtained by
dipping the tiles into the mixture. Figure 10, Plate II.,
shows the process in typical operation. Here husband
and wife are seen busy liming a large quantity of tiles;
between them stands a barrel three parts full of a
mixture of sand and lime stirred to the consistence of
thin creamy mortar. In this particular instance 1 part
of lime to 2 parts of sand wras the proportion employed.

33

To counteract the tendency of the sand to separate
out and settle to the bottom of the barrel it is stirred
up frequently with a short-handled oar-shaped stirrer
(Figure 2). Long-handled iron pinchers are employed

Fig. 2. — Lime Stirrer.

to hold the tile while bein^ immersed. The tile is
taken up by one edge, convex surface upwards, and in
this position it is immersed in the mortar ; by a turn of
the wrist the tile is twisted concave side up as it is
withdrawn after a momentary sojourn in the mixture.
As the tiles are limed they are neatly piled in stacks,
the concave surface upward in all cases, in order that
the coating on this, the important surface, shall not drain
away as it might if stacked in the reverse manner. The
coating applied should be smooth and even with a thick-
ness about equal to that of a half anna piece.

A fact mentioned to me by M. L. Michelet is that
a lime containing a proportion of clay (burnt) is of
superior value to pure lime ; it appears that this admixture
gives it a superior setting quality, and renders it more
resistant to water.

Liming operations are invariably carried out ashore
in the workyard adjoining the wooden store-cabin which
every parker possesses in some convenient spot close to
the beach and where he stores implements and materials
not in use (Plate I, figure 9).

(c) Installation of the Collectors ; their oversight

while in place.

In many of the localities where the Portuguese oyster
is under cultivation in France as also almost uni-
versally on Dutch oyster grounds, no special case to
5

34

contain the collector tiles is used. In Holland, in the
east arm of the river Scheldt, between ioand 15 millions
of limed tiles are laid down each year and the whole of
this number are simply piled on their edges, concave
surface downwards, in long parallel rows on the tidal
flats where the surface is stiff and well consolidated and
fairly free from the evils of soft mud and shifting sand.
At Arcachon conditions are not so favourable ; the best
situations there for spat collection are the abruptly
sloping margins of those flats in the central and eastern
sections of the basin washed by strong currents for a
certain period each tide and these places are almost all
characterised by a soft muddy surface a foot or more in
depth. These local conditions have two results, they
limit greatly the horizontal area available for spat
collection and they render necessary some device to
elevate the tile collectors above the mud. Vertical instead
of horizontal piling of tiles therefore takes place and to
permit of this being done economically and with safety
from the violence of wind, waves and currents, a crate-
like case of wood has been devised to contain the col-
lector tile. The tile-crate or r&che as it is called in France
from its resemblance when filled to honeycomb is made
of a size to contain one hundred tiles. The overall
dimensions of a ruche are 2 metres long, 60 cms. wide and
60 cms. high (6 \ ft. by 2 ft. by 2 ft.). The bottom frame
consists of four roughly sawn pine bars nailed together
with a single transverse strengthening batten at the
mid-length thus: —

Fig. 3. — Bottom Frame of a Ruche.

35

The upper frame is'similar. To join the two frames
into a crate vertical battens 2J inches wide are nailed
on, eleven along each side and 2 at each end thus :—

Fig. 4. — End View of a Ruche to show Details of Construction.

p. Piles driven into the Mud to give a firm Foundation ;
s. Side Props or Stays.

It will be noted as a useful detail in construction
that the side battens are nailed upon the outer side of
the rectangular lower frame but upon the inner side
of the upper frame ; this permits the ends of the tiles in
the bottom row (laid transversely) to rest upon the side
bars of the lower frame, while the side bars of the top
frame serve to give purchase to buttressing stakes. The
ruches are bought ready made from local carpenters and
cost, tarred ready for use, exactly one rupee each at the
factory. The life of a ruche is three to four years ; each
year the repair and preparation of the old ruches occu-
pies a good deal of the parkers' time and attention — they

36

must first be cleaned and repaired and then be given a
fresh coating of coal-tar. These operations should be
done some time in advance of the spatting season to
allow of the tarred cases beino- well soaked before the
limed tiles are put in ; parkers have lost their harvest
through inattention to this simple precaution, the freshly-
tarred cases giving off such odour and noxious compounds
as either hindered spat attachment or killed the spat soon
after settlement.

To secure good results it is essential that the collec-
tors be not placed in position any considerable length of
time prior to the general spatting of the adult oysters in
the parks in the vicinity ; if they be put down even a
fortnight too early a glairy film composed partly of mud
and partly of microscopic plant life (diatoms and other
algae) forms on the surfaces of the tiles. On this slimy
surface oyster larvae find no foothold ; they pass away
and are lost to the parker who has thus prematurely
immersed his collectors. The date of emission of spat
by the mother oysters is usually deduced with approxi-
mate accuracy from the colour and appearance of the
gills. Sample oysters are opened from time to time.
As soon as the gills take on a dark blue-black colouration
the parker knows that no time must be lost in putting
his collectors in place. With a continuance of fine warm
weather at this season spatting takes place very soon
after but should inclement weather supervene in the
interval, spatting may be retarded a fortnight or even
longer.

As soon then as the signs of early spatting are
observed, all haste is made to transport the limed
collectors and the necessary number of ruches to the
park. Pinasses and fiats are loaded up and despatched
soon after high water on the first day that the tide
recedes sufficiently to permit of work being done at the
parks. With the advent of the motor boat, this transport
of tiles has been greatly facilitated and now if the parker
has no motor pinasse of his own he usually hires one to

37

tow his barges (PL II., fig. n) to his concession, a great
economy both of time and labour. If the bottom be
firm and well consolidated the weight of tiles within is
sufficient to keep the ruche in position. More frequently
the ground chosen is soft and muddy and piles have to
be driven well down to form a foundation for the ruche
and prevent it sinking partially into the mud. For each
ruche usually 6 piles are used, driven in until the upper
ends are a few inches above the surface of the mud. On
these the ruche is placed and securely nailed thereto. To
obtain further rigidity should the mud be specially soft
or the position somewhat exposed, side stays or struts
are used to give support (Fig. 4). The struts are pine
props driven by hand into the mud obliquely for some 2
feet or more and so placed that the upper edge of the
ruche rests upon them ; a nail driven through the ruche
frame into the head of the prop prevents displacement.

The ruches are disposed at right angles to the margin
of the channel they border as this interferes with the
current more effectually than in any other disposition ;
eddies and quiet waters are the consequence and such by
delaying the current-driven spat give greater opportunity
for it to settle and attach upon the tiles. According to
the width of the ground available, the ruches are arranged
in two or in three rows ; between each two rows sufficient
space is left for a man to pass.

In stacking the tiles in the ruches, the lowermost
row is laid transversely, the ends of each tile supported
upon the longitudinal bars of the bottom frame of the
ruche (PL III, fig. 12), which is made of a size into
which the tiles just fit comfortably when laid transverse
to the length of the case. Care is taken not to allow
adjoining tiles to touch one another ; a space of from
3 to 4 centimetres is given between them. Nine tiles
go usually to form a transverse row. The remainder of
the tiles are laid in rows alternately longitudinal and
transverse, the concave surface always downwards.
A ruche of the usual size accommodates 100 tiles.

38

When the last row has been placed a quantity of
brushwood or pine branches are laid over the stack of
tiles and secured by cross battens nailed to each edge
of the case (PL III, fig. 13). This serves excellently as
an elastic packing to keep the tiles at once firmly in place
and to prevent them being broken or damaged by rubbing
or jarring against one another during rough weather ; it
has the further advantage of protecting the young oysters
after their settlement on the tiles from the intensity of
the sun's heat — a danger not to be neglected.

Under normal fine weather conditions when the spring
has been genial and warm, spatting takes place during
the last fortnight in June ; collectors are then placed as
early as 12th June. The summer of last year was un-
usually chill and bleak and in consequence few collectors
were put in position during June ; even in the first week
of July the liming of tiles was still proceeding and many
parkers did not lay out their collectors till well on in that
month (PI. IV, fig. 14).

When all collectors have been laid in position
they should receive careful attention every few tides ;
every effort has to be made to keep them clean and
free from any muddy deposit while they await the
arrival of the spat ; if this be delayed at all, means should
be taken to rinse off the sediment which gathers — the
plan in use at Arcachon is the primitive one of dashing
water among the tiles by means of a long handled wooden
ladle, a similar method to that employed in the town in
the watering of the streets. As much violence is used
as possible, but it struck me at once how much more
effective would be the use of a garden syringe and a short
length of hose. Some years this danger of the muddying
of the tiles is much greater than others, the amount of
mud held in suspension in the water depending on tidal
conditions and on the rainfall and weather prevailing at
the particular season.

When once the spat has attached in quantity the
constant attention hitherto given is no longer necessary ;

39

It suffices if the collectors be carefully examined after
any spell of stormy weather. It is also essential to the
well-being of the young oysters that when they have
attained an approximate age of three months, the whole
of the tiles should be gone over most thoroughly and
all sea-growth other than oysters brushed off. The
proper observance of this precaution which all careful
cultivators practise, accelerates the growth of the young
oysters in a marvellous manner, Monsieur Michelet
informed me ; the best way to carry out the cleansing is
first to crush all the objectionable growth, which consists
largely of ascidians, by means of a pad of sacking and
then to remove the debris with the aid of a stiff brush.
The employment of the pad makes the rubbish more
readily detachable ; without it greater force has to be
used entailino- a danger ofdamaoqno- or brushing- off some
of the young oysters.

Some parkers do not take the trouble to perform this
cleansing process and their oysters in consequence show
almost no increase in size for the remainder of the time
they remain on the tiles ; the extra trouble and expense
of the cleansing is amply repaid by the higher value the
product possesses when the time comes for detachment
from the collectors.

(d) Detroquage, the separation of brood-oysters from

the Collectors.

Detroquage, the detachment of brood-oysters from
the tile collectors, is carried out as early as the weather
will permit in the year following the attachment of the
spat. In mild winters it may begin as early as January
or February, but it takes place more usually during
March and April when the young oysters are about 9
months old. Exceptionally it may have to be postponed
till May if the season has been very inclement and
development greatly retarded. If the tiles have been

40

kept clean and free from competing or smothering
growths, ascidians, sponges, mussels, and sea-weeds, the
spat should now measure about an inch in diameter (2-3
cms.); their shell should have acquired sufficient strength
to permit it to sustain life in a non-attached condition.
After a good spatting season 150 young oysters is a fair
average per tile ; in very unfavourable years the average
may drop to 15-20 per tile, an occurrence which for-
tunately does not take place more than twice in every
ten years' cycle.

Detroquage, a word which it is convenient to adopt
from the French as we have no suitable equivalent in
English, is carried on ashore in the parker's workyard,
ruches beino- dismantled and the tiles beingr brought
ashore in instalments as the work progresses.

Thanks to the imperfect adhesion induced by long
immersion in the sea and the presence of the preliminary
wash of pure lime, the coating of mortar may now be
flaked off in fragments from the tiles with the greatest
ease, each flake carrying with it whatever young oysters
happen to adhere at that point. A series of sharp blows
and thrusts delivered by means of a chisel or spatula-
shaped knife suffice to loosen and detach the mortar
coating and its burden from a tile — the operation occupy-
ing on an average a little more than a minute. The work
is easily learned and is not exhausting. It requires
exactly that quality of carefulness and attention for which
female labour is well adapted ; as a consequence it is
entrusted largely to women and girls. While engaged in
detaching the small oysters the workers are grouped
round wooden stripping tables having a high edge along
each side ; in the centre is a large opening towards which
the bottom slopes on all sides and through which the
flakes of mortar and young oysters drop into a wooden
tray placed there to receive them. As a rule the tables
are square-topped and of a size convenient for four
strippers to work at each, two and two on opposite sides,
leaving the other opposed sides free.

4'

Fig. 5. — A detroquage table.

To steady the tile while being handled, two guide
bars sloping from the edge of the bin-like table to the
lower edge of a central transverse partition are nailed on
in each worker's place, or four pairs in all. (See fig. 5.)
Each worker in a 7 hours day is expected to strip ?oo
tiles and also to wash the young oysters flaked from these
tiles. The oysters are then temporarily placed, still in
wooden trays fitted with wire netting bottoms, in the
storage tank which is an essential portion of the equipment
of a parker's working head-quarters ashore.

As soon as time permits, the young oysters are taken
out, cleaned, and classed, with the aid of sieves having
meshes of 1 centimetre diameter, into two grades, those
measuring one centimetre and under, and those of superior
size. Oysters damaged in the process of detachment
are also picked out to be kept apart from their sound

6

42

companions. The percentage of these last is however
trifling when reasonable care be exercised in the stripping
process.

When detroquage is completed, the tiles, denuded of
their coating of mortar, are washed and stacked in heaps
to await the approach of the ensuing spatting season
when they will be again limed and placed along the
margin of the channels to attract a fresh Generation of
oyster spat. The ruches next demand attention ; con-
siderable damage is unavoidable every season and this
must be made good and the cases thoroughly retarred
by a dip in a cauldron of coal-tar, before they may be
employed again.

(e) Rearing to saleable size.

As soon as possible after detroquage the brood-oysters
are conveyed back to the park and placed in shallow
protecting cases, called ambulances or caisses ostreophiles.
These " hospitals " as we may term them in English are
simply large shallow boxes each formed of a skeleton
wooden frame 2 metres long by 1 metre wide and divided
into two or more usually three compartments. The
bottom is closed in by a sheet of galvanized wire netting
and for cover a second frame also covered with wire
netting is employed. The depth of the case is not more
than 6 inches. To allow water to circulate freely through
the case as well as to secure it from displacement by the
waves, the sides are nailed at a height of 3 or 4 inches
from the ground to 4 posts driven well down into the
soil (PL IV, fig. 15).

An oyster case of the usual dimensions will accommo-
date from 1 2,000 to 1 5,000 brood-oysters at the time they
are stripped from the tiles ; as growth proceeds the
numbers have to be thinned by transference of a quantity
to other cases or to the claires or to the open ground of
the park.

The employment of these cases is of vital importance
to the culturist during the period immediately following

43

detroquage. By their use the brood-oysters damaged
during this operation and those whose growth on the
tiles has been retarded through crowding- unfavourable
situation or the juxtaposition of competing organisms
(mussels, ascidians, barnacles, etc.) experience improved
conditions and at once respond by immediate increase in
the rate of shell growth. The construction of the case and
the manner it is raised above the ground enable the
young oysters to experience the full benefit of the water
movement set up by the action of the tides ; the current
passes not only over them as when they lie free upon
the surface of the park, but also beneath and betwixt
them, hurrying food to every gaping mouth. Danger
from partial suffocation by mud, and from the ravages
of enemies, whereof the name is legion when the oysters
are young, are largely eliminated automatically by the
form and position of the cases ; the parker also contri-
butes much to this immunity by constant attention to
the well-being of the contents. As frequently as possible
he visits the cases, clears away whatever sea-weeds and
rubbish may have attached to or lodged within the cases,
washes off mud, and, most important item of all, rear-
ranges and relevels the brood-oysters themselves, that all
in turn may have the advantages of forming a portion
of the uppermost layers. Here I must mention that
economy forbids the oysters to be spread thinly in the
cases. When quite young they are often disposed quite
three inches in depth ; only by constant visits to turn and
rearrange the dense mass can health and rapid growth
be ensured. The advantages of case-culture are so
emphatic in ensuring rapid growth and so enabling the
" crop " to be placed on the market at a much earlier date
than when the oysters be laid free on the general surface
of the park, that in the heyday of the Arcachon oyster
industry in the early nineties, the parkers carried case
culture much further than is done now. In those days
every parker had large numbers of cases in order to
prolong the term of sojourn in these sanctuaries. About
i8q6 the number of cases in use in the basin was estimated

44

at fully 300,000, having a value of 3,000,000 francs.
With reduced profits the parker of to-day cannot afford
the great expense involved in the purchase and upkeep
of a large number of cases ; he finds that he must
economise on this item and to-day there are not more
than 70,000 cases in use. At present then the minimum
of cases are employed, just sufficient to accommodate, in
crowded mass, the young oysters during the critical
period of three to four months following their detach-
ment from the collectors. Growth cannot be so rapid as
it would be with plenty of cases available, but in practice
the parker finds that the extra rapidity of growth given
by prolonged case culture is not commensurate with
the higher expenditure necessitated. Conditions of
trade are such that he must now take risks which his
predecessors did not and now that the risks have to be
faced, they are not found so dangerous as was imagined.

As growth increases and space decreases the larger
oysters are removed from the cases and spread free on
the surface of the park. Formerly when prices were
high, shallow ponds, called claires, for the reception and
rearing of these oysters were excavated and enclosed on
the higher portions of the concessions. Very heavy
capital expenditure was incurred in levelling the ground,
improving the surface by means of sand and gravel, in
constructing solid embankments and in the provision of
sluices for regulating the water level. A culturist of
to-day would never dream of incurring such expense,
indeed the solidly built claire, the true claire, belongs to
that early period of oyster culture at Arcachon when
conditions were so prosperous as to lead enthusiastic
culturists into the rash pursuit of that expensive theore-
tical perfection and complexity of method which is so
frequently opposed to the commercial success of a young
industry.

The retaining wall of the classic claire, built solidly
of clay and gravel retained by heavy planking supported
by stout posts has been succeeded by a most ingeni-
ous and comparatively cheaply constructed substitute.

45

•

Around the area to be converted into a claire a shallow
trench 6 to 8 inches wide is dug. Into this are packed
quantities of short sticks {brandes), 18 inches long,
disposed vertically in such manner that the greater
portion of their length projects from the ground level to
form a low and broad border about one foot in height
and some 5 to 7 inches wide. The soil is packed in
tightly on either side of this palisade border and when
the interstices are filled up with clay a low bund has
been formed capable of holding up a depth of 8 to 10
inches of water when the tide recedes, so long as the
walls remain in good order. The construction of these
latter-day claires whose bunds remind one of the closely
trimmed boxwood borders of old English gardens entails
little further expense than the cost of levelling the
surface and of spreading a thin layer of fine sand and
gravel when considered necessary as a means to con-
solidate the surface if it be muddy. This form of claire
is found quite satisfactory and in a land where pine
forests are extensive no cheaper method could be
devised. The tendency to-day is to dispense with walled
claires of even the cheapest description. Partly this is
due to experience showing that in the mild and favour-
able conditions prevailing at Arcachon there is no very
great advantage, save in particular localities, of troubling
to keep the oysters continually covered with water, and
partly, I am strongly inclined to believe, because a
continuance of many years cultivation has very greatly
improved the natural surface of the parks. Of recent
years culture at Arcachon tends strongly towards
simplification of methods ; the number of rearing cases
are reduced to a minimum and the great majority of
parkers content themselves with scattering the young
oysters over the smoothest and most protected section
of their ground, there to develop without other protection
than is afforded by a tall palisade of stakes primarily
intended to exclude predatory fishes.

Whenever the tides serve, the oysters thus scattered
over the surface of the park receive attention. Sea-weeds

46

are cleaned away, while starfishes and other vermin
of the parks are destroyed. The oysters are raked
over as frequently as possible to keep them well on the
surface and whenever they are drifted into heaps or against
the palisade, they are rescattered carefully.

A Government regulation forbids the export from
Arcachon basin of oysters below 5 centimetres (2 inches)
in greatest length, a size locally known as " deux ans"
or 2 year-olds, this being the approximate age when
this dimension is reached although on favourably
situated parks where growth be exceptionally rapid it
may be attained at 18 months of age. The rule was
made to prevent the basin being depleted of breeding
oysters, there being no natural reserve available to
supply spat. As a consequence the Arcachon parkers
specialize very largely in the production of these two
year-olds for which there is a large demand from the
oyster fattening farms of Marennes, La Tremblade and
He d'Oleron ; Spain is also a large buyer. The bulk of
the despatches from the basin of oysters from two to
three years old a few years ago was enormous, averaging
from 1898 to 1903 almost 300 millions per annum. For
some three or four years past this home trade has dimi-
nished greatly, barely reaching a total of 100 millions
for the years 1906 and 1907, whereas in the same years
the export abroad chiefly of larger and older oysters
soared suddenly from 20 millions in 1905 to 155
millions in 1906 and 157 millions in 1907. In this
connection it may be noted that table consumption in
France of Arcachon oysters (see table at the end of
this section) has increased enormously since 1903 and
accounted for 147 millions in 1907 as against a paltry
annual average of \\ million for the series of years
1 900-1903. Oysters required for consumption run from
4 to 5 years old at Arcachon. From this we infer that
coincident with simplification of methods an increasing
quantity of oysters of edible size are being produced, the
culture and sale of 2 year-olds concurrently diminishing.
The change is accounted for in part by the decrease in

47

demand from the fattening centres where the culturists
are giving attention to spat collection on their own
account and to the culture of the cheap and popular
Portuguese species. Another factor is the desire of the
Arcachon producer to counterbalance the lower prices
offered in recent years for half-grown oysters by putting
on the market full-grown stock for which a higher price
is paid ; he is willing to put in more labour and wait
longer for his market if thereby he may obtain a higher
return. The change also shows the favourable effect of
low prices upon the annual consumption. Till a few
years ago oysters were a luxury for the well-to-do ;
now-a-days, thanks to competition, the curtailment of
cultural expenses and the advent of the culture of the
Portuguese oyster — cheaply grown, tasty and large of
body — oysters of fair quality are now within the reach
of the masses and Arcachon benefits accordingly, for its
oysters have not the reputation of those of Marennes and
being unable to fetch a high price are more and more in
request by those of limited purse.

Besides the regulation forbidding the exportation * of
oysters under 5 cms. in size, another is in force restrict-
ing the export of all oysters of legal size to the period
between 1st September and 15th May. According to
the number to be sold or the condition of the sale the
oysters are classed either on the park itself or after
being brought ashore. Experience enables the skilled
parker to estimate the grade of his different oysters very
accurately by eye. In collecting them for delivery to
the purchasers, his employes rake the oysters together
into heaps, count them roughly by hundreds into net-
bags (panne tic res), and load them into the pinasses. On
delivery, the buyer or his agent selects a bag here and
there, counts, weighs and otherwise verifies the confor-
mity of the delivery to the samples on which the sale
was effected. The custom is to count 1,010 oyster to

* Exportation here means sale outside the limits of the basin ; it is not used in
the more usual sense meaning despatch to foreign countries,

4s

each nominal thousand, a bonus to the purchaser of one
per cent.

Formerly the classification was by centimetre dimen-
sion, the oysters running in grades of J and \ centimetre
difference, 5-5J, 5-5J, 5J— 6 and so on. This classifica-
tion had several drawbacks and opened the door to
imposition and endless bickering and grumbling, till
in 1904 the system of combining measurement and weight
in the grading was introduced. By this system the
classification ran as follows : —

Sizes.

Weight per

1,000.

5-5J cms.

• • • •

.. Up

to 26 kilos.

5-5* »

. •

• • • •

.. 27

vilos and above

5 J cms. and over

... •

.. From 35-39

kilos.

Do.

..

• • • •

)>

40-44

)>

Do.

• •

...

j)

45-49

)>

6 cms. and over

• •

...

M

5°-54

>)

Do.

..

...

•• >»

55-59

m

Do.

..

.

>J

60-64

>!

Do.

■ •

• • * •

)J

65-69

))

Weight per thousand is now the accepted standard of
the trade ; it has proved satisfactory and is free from many
of the drawbacks inherent to sale based on measurement.

Table showing the changes taking place in the disposal of the annual
output of indigenous oysters (O. edulis) from Arcachon basin.

Total output.

Disposal.

Year.

Sold to other
French rearing
establishments.

Sent abroad.

Table
consumption.

1898

318,272,500

307,872,500

9,400,000

1 ,000,000

1899

297,484,000

292,084,000

4,400,000

1,000,000

1900

318,890,000

309,030,000

8,360,000

1,500,000

1901

291,255,000

280,255,000

9,500,000

1,500,000

1902

308,544,000

302,703,000

3,900,000

1 ,500,000

1903

299,550,000

290,250,000

7,800,000

1,500,000

1904

75,681,000

40,684,600

20,000,000

15,000,000

1905

420,000,000

200,000,000

20,000,000

200,000,000

1906

261,341,000

52,000,000

154,938,000

53,806,000

1907

352,557,000

48,700,000

146,980,000

147,377,000

49

{/) Enemies and Diseases.

Man himself is and has been the qreatest devastator
of oyster beds ; at the present time his reckless and
short-sighted fishing has actually destroyed practically all
the crreat natural beds on the French and English coasts
which about the middle of last century were being dredged
over by hundreds of oyster smacks in the season. A few
odd remnants alone are left, the most important, that of
Cancale, being kept in existence solely by stringent State
regulations and the limitation of the fishery to one or two
days in each season.

In regard to oysters under cultivation the enemies are
those normal to shallow water natural beds, in some cases
aggravated and in others diminished, by the conditions
of culture. Boring molluscs, starfishes, crabs, predatory
fishes, and tunnelling worms and sponges comprise the
list of active enemies ; mussels, sponges, ascidians and
other attached or crusting invertebrate growths together
with sea-weeds of various species form a second category,
that of passive enemies — which by excessive competition
for the microscopic food in the water or by stifling over-
growth may entail as wide-spread injury at times as the
inroad of the battalions of active foes. Apart too from the
actual injury caused from time to time the precautionary
measures rendered necessary to safeguard the parks and
minimize the risks arising from these dangers involve
heavy and constantly recurring expenditure, special
measures of defence having to be taken against each of
the principal classes of depredators and parasites.

Boring molluscs- -The species responsible for almost
all the loss from this class of enemies is a small species
of Murex, a genus of gastropod molluscs noted for their
carnivorous habits. Their mouth parts include a lone
ribbon carrying hundreds of narrow rows of very touo-h
and sharp horny teeth ; by means of these teeth the
little mollusc — it is scarcely an inch in length — can bore
through the thickest and hardest shells, the wear of the
teeth at the front end of the ribbon being made good by

7

5o

the continuous development and growth of new rows at
the hinder extremity.

As is natural the thin valves of young oysters are much
more readily pierced than the thick, dense, and harder
shells of adult individuals ; indeed at Arcachon it has been
proved that whereas a Murex is able to bore a hole
through a valve of a month-old oyster within half an hour,
it takes eight hours for the same sized enemy to pierce the
shell of one three years old. These little gastropod vermin
show a very great preference for brood oysters and have
been responsible tor the destruction of great quantities
in some years. So numerous were they at one time at
Arcachon and so extensive the losses they caused that both
the Dutch oyster-rearers and the Whitstable oyster com-
panies which till then had been in the habit of taking-
some of their supplies from Arcachon, alarmed lest they
should import the scourge, decided in 1883 to buy no
further quantities of young oysters from Arcachon ; great
difficulty was experienced in persuading these buyers to
remove the embargo.

As an instance of the dimensions assumed by this
plague in former years, we may note that one season men
of the guard boat then stationed to protect the Imperial
oyster parks collected in a single tide from one park
having an area of 4 hectares, nearly 15,000 Cormaillots,
as this little Murex is named locally ; the next day almost
as many were gathered from the same ground. We may
be certain that if 30,000 were taken in two days on these 4
hectares, the original Murex population of this area must
have approached 100,000, if indeed it did not exceed this
number. It requires no abstruse calculation to realize
how rapidly a bed of brood oysters will diminish before
the inroads of such a host. F'ortunately the war which
the parkers have waged incessantly on this most danger-
ous enemy have been eminently successful ; its numbers
have so diminished that the parkers no longer dread it,
confident that the exercise of ordinary care in destroying
adults and ego cases whenever seen, will prevent the
reappearance of the scourge in dangerous numbers.

5i

Starfishes are not dreaded at Arcachon to the extent
they are in England or the United States. Their
numbers and the amount of harm they do are incon-
siderable in most years and when they do appear it is
difficult to say whether the harm they cause is not
more than counterbalanced by the good they effect by
destroying mussels for which they show a decided prefer-
ence, not because they prefer the flavour of the mussel
to that of the oyster, but probably because they find it
easier to exhaust the former and drag apart its valves.

The comparative immunity of the Arcachon parks
from the attacks of starfishes appears to be due to the
fact thai; the beds are not permanently under water.
Starfishes do not stand exposure well and are seldom
found between tide-marks ; besides, the almost daily
attention the parks receive enables the parker to destroy
at once any which do find their way into the basin, star-
fish being- conspicuous objects when stranded.

Shell-tunnelling worms (Leucodore) and sponges
(Clitme) are met with at Arcachon, but scarcely deserve
mention, so inconsiderable is the harm they do owing
partly to the high cultivation and cleanliness prevailing,
and to the fact that the bulk of the oysters are vended at
an early age. No very old oysters are ever kept on hand
in the basin and as no accumulation of calcareous rubbish
is tolerated in the parks, neither of these foes, which
elsewhere sometimes occasion considerable loss, finds
favourable life-conditions to multiply at Arcachon.
Enemies of this class are as weeds on agricultural land,
of no account so long as the fields receive careful atten-
tion at the proper seasons but a bane and source of loss
whenever vigilance is relaxed.

Crabs and fishes at the present time give the greatest
trouble to the parkers, occasioning heavy loss if adequate
protective measures be not continually kept up. The
worst offender amongst the crabs is the common green
shore-crab, Carcinus mcenas. They occur in great
numbers and defy all attempts at extirpation- To mature
oysters they can do little or no mischief, a two year-old

52

oyster being quite a match for any green crab. With
delicate-shelled brood oysters for months after detroquage
and also while these young are still attached to the
collectors, the case is different ; the crab has no difficulty
in breaking away the lip of the shell and picking out the
delicate morsel within.

Of fishes quite a number occasionally feed upon
brood-oysters, but it is in regard to the maturing oysters
that the parkers fear fishes more particularly. Indeed
just as crabs may be considered the special enemies of
young oysters, so fishes hold this position towards the
adult generations. Large mollusc-eating relatives of the
rays are the special dread of the parker and against
these his most elaborate and expensive protective devices
are directed. The worst offenders are the tere (Trygon
pastinacd) and the epervier (Myliobatis aquila), whose
jaws are armed with a mosaic of strong milling teeth capa-
ble of crushing with ease even thick-shelled adult oysters.
Of the two species of oyster cultivated at Arcachon
the tere prefers the heavy shelled Portuguese for though
the shell be thicker than in the native species it is softer
and the contents are larger and presumably more satisfy-
ing to the depredator. It is interesting to note that the
inroads of large shoals of a related species of ray {Rhi-
noptcra javaiiica) axe, the frequent cause of the total dis-
appearance of extensive beds of pearl-oysters off the
coasts of India and Ceylon where instances are known of
millions of maturing oysters being cleared away during
the interval between examination in November of one
year and February of the next. Fishes undoubtedly are
the most dangerous enemies with which the Arcachon
cultivators of edible oysters and the owners of the pearl
banks in the East have to battle.

Of passive enemies the list comprises practically all
sedentary marine organisms that flourish in shallow
waters and between tide-marks. Constant attention to
ensuring the cleanliness of the parks prevents the ma-
jority doing much harm ; it is the careless parker — a
man seldom met with at Arcachon — who suffers severely

53

from these silent unobtrusive enemies. As may be
readily understood the chief danger from this source
arises during the period the collector tiles are stacked in
the ruches. At that time the water is full of the em-
bryos and larvae of a host of creatures all as keen to find
clean firm foothold as are the swimming spat of the
oyster. Every one that attaches to a collector reduces
the space available for oyster settlement and as these in-
truders increase in size and appetite they compete with
the young oysters for the current-brought food — a
competition which if not checked results in stunting
and virtual arrest of growth. Mussels and sea-squirts
(ascidians) are the most troublesome of these greedy and
unwelcome creatures but whereas the latter settle chiefly
on the surface of the tiles, the former cluster by preference
on the wooden frames of the ruches and on the exposed
edges and ends of the tiles, positions which enable them
to intercept the bulk of the food matter before it flows
through the stack of tiles. Always do mussels select the
positions which give them the vantage of being able to
filter out and seize the best of the food brought by the
tides and currents. Apart from the collectors their
favourite settlement is upon the fences that surround
the parks and the faggot bunds of the claires. A wall of
greedy mouths encircles every park, impoverishing the
waters and robbing the oysters even of their fair share of
the common food supply. In some years the abundance
of mussels has entailed most serious losses upon the
parkers, for besides causing stunting of growth an
enormous abundance may so prejudicially affect the spai-
fall as to produce actual scarcity. It happens that the
mussels spawn rather earlier than the oysters so while
the latter are vet in the swimming stage the mussels
have settled down and are busy filtering out the little
particles of food essential to" the well-being of the
oysters.

The lug-worm (Arenico/a) gives trouble to the parker
in quite a different way. This worm has the habit of
burrowing in muddy sand, feeding on the decaying organic

54

matter contained therein after the manner of the earth-
worm on land. Darwin has shown what an enormous
amount of soil is passed through the bodies of earthworms
during- this feeding and how the lower layers of the soil
are gradually transported to the surface by this agency.
I have elsewhere # described how the same work is being
carried on by the lug-worm on the littoral and on the
sea-bottom wherever muddy sands occur. Indeed in
Europe the vermicelli- like castings of this worm are
familiar to every visitor to the sea shore. In many cases
lug-worms perform a useful function in aerating and
cleaning the foul under layers of sandy beaches especially
wherever quantities of sea-weeds are cast ashore and
covered with sand ; in Arcachon oyster parks they cause
trouble by bringing mud to the surface from below the
well-consolidated superficial layer formed by the parker
with trouble and expense. If a large number of these
worms are at work in a park the amount of mud brought
up and spread over the surface is very appreciable and so
slowly and quietly does the damage progress that many
parkers actually are not aware of the importance of this
source of the mudding of their ground.

The last group of passive enemies is that of the
sea-weeds. Various species are incriminated, acting in
differing manner. Some envelop the oyster in stifling
swathes, others buoy it up and enable the waves to carry
it away ; some by the luxuriance of their growth lessen
the rapidity of currents over the parks and cause an
increase in the amount of mud deposited ; another class
cause loss to oyster culturists by the decomposition of
their fronds when stormy weather uproots them in mass
to Hing in heaps upon the oyster-strewn surface of the
parks. The greatest harm is wrought by the operation
of the two first named factors. The sea-lettuce {Ulva
lactuca\ and the tufted red algse termed "bouquet"
at Arcachon (Ckondria tenuissima and Hypnca musci-
formis) are the worst offenders among the weeds whose

* "Journal of Mar. Zoology and Microscopy," p. 27, Vol. I.

55

growth upon the valves of oysters produces a buoyancy
entailing much loss to parkers at Arcachon. The
specific gravity of these algae is scarcely more than
that of sea water and so when their tufts fall flaccid
upon themselves on the recession of the tide, many of
the gas bubbles disengaged by their cells during the
process of assimilation are imprisoned among the fila-
ments ; on the return of the tide the accumulation of
these bubbes is often sufficient to render the tuft so buoyant
that the oysters whereon they grow are floated up and
carried towards the boundary of the park. There the
palisade of pine branches may arrest their further course,
but wherever a gap occurs they are carried through either
to float into an adjacent park or to be lost in the no-man's
land of the channels. It is noteworthy that " bouquet"
is a trouble of recent origin. In 1878 it was not known
or at least was so unimportant as not to be noted as an
oyster culture danger by MM. de Montauge, practical
culturists, who published in that year an exhaustive
summary of the then known oyster enemies and maladies
of the Arcachon basin. Both the alga? included under the
term '' bouquet" are species properly belonging to the
Mediterranean and subtropical Atlantic and while the
range of Chondria tenuis sima extends to England, Hypnea
musciformis is not known to thrive north of Arcachon.
Another alga, the " balloon weed ", Colpomenia st'nuosa,
is another very active species in floating away oysters, but
so far it has not established itself in the Arcachon district.
Considerable loss from this cause can be avoided only
by constantly cleaning the oyster shells, rubbing them
against one another, a process which necessitates the
expenditure of much labour. High level parks suffer
least as a hot sun or heavy showers of rain occurring at
low water during spring tides kill off the bulk of the
harmful tufts of "bouquet". Sauvageau # suggests
the utilization of the herbivorous periwinkle, Littorina

*" A piopos du Colpomenia sinuosa." [Travaux des labcialoires du Station
biologique d'Arcachon, 1906.]

56

littorea, to combat the growth of " bouquet ", quoting the
success attending the employment of this measure in the
ciaires of Sable-d'Olonne. Chondria and Hypnea appear
in summer and disappear in winter.

The green filaments of Enteromorpha and Cladophora,
constituting the " Union vert " or green mud of the
Arcachonnais parkers, are the important smothering
alga; of this district, enwrapping the oysters in a dense
green blanket under the action of brisk currents or rough
weather.

The common brown wrack Fucus vesiculosns grows
luxuriantly on the boundary palisades and on the
pointed stakes employed against predatory fishes and
contributes appreciably to the deposit upon the parks
of mud and sand from suspension in the water ; on
the other hand, the damp fronds of this wrack form an
excellent material in which to pack oysters for despatch
by rail.

The tanole of delicate filaments characterisino- the
growth habit of the green conferva Vaucheria thuretii,
is a much more serious danger. This "cat's hair" of
the parkers penetrates the muddy bottom of the ciaires
to some depth with a net-work of threads retaining and
fixing sediment as it settles to the bottom. In this
way it tends to raise the level of the mud in the parks
and so cause deterioration of the surface. This obliges
the parkers to incur considerable and frequently recur-
ring expenditure upon the removal of the mud and sand
thus accumulated.

Sea-grass (Zosiera) and the wrack above mentioned
(/\ vesiculosns) are occasionally uprooted in qreat
quantities by storms and thrown within the parks ; unless
removed quickly their decomposition is said to cause
serious losses.

Diseases. — In addition to the many visible enemies
from which the parker has to guard his beds of oysters,
other malignant influences, more subtle, less easily recog-
nized, and more difficult to combat, occasionally appear

57

and produce diseases of serious gravity sometimes epi-
demic in character. The more dangerous of the ailments
which afflict oysters under cultivation at Arcachon are
those known locally as doussain or doufain, typhus,
chambrage, boudeuse or rachitique and disease of the
adductor muscle.

Under the name of doucain, Arcachon parkers refer
to the chief ailment caused by an excessive reduction in
the salinity of the water bathing the oyster beds, conse-
quent upon Moods resulting from prolonged rains over
the catchment areas of the streams emptying into the
Arcachon basin, whence doucain, the disease caused by
can douce. Among marine animals the oyster is one of
the most tolerant towards variations of salinity, so long
as they are not excessive and long continued. If they
be, the oysters gradually sicken and if the adverse
conditions be further continued widespread death ensues.
The first sign of a reduced salinity is seen in the
gradual enlargement and " plumping " of the body, the
liver suffering great enlargement (hepatitis). This con-
dition of hypertrophy of the tissues in general and of
the liver and other glandular organs in particular is due
to the same cause and is indeed identical with the
artificial and rapid " fattening " to which ignorant or
unscrupulous dealers often subject consignments of
oysters to be consumed forthwith, a process consisting
of laying the oysters in ponds or in tubs containing
fresh water. The "fattening" in merely the osmotic
exudation of dense fluid from the cells and vessels of
the body and replacement by the in-taking of a larger
volume of the less dense fluid without. More water
enters than leaves the tissues in obedience to a well-
known physical law, with the result that distension and
discomfort first ensue, followed by a disorganization of
secretory functions and the eventual break-down and
death of the entire organism. Parks situated towards
the eastern and northern (interior) extremities of the
basin are most liable to surfer from this disease, beino-

8

5?

more open to the influence of flood water than those
at the seaward anoie of the basin. No remedv other
than the removal of the cause is practicable, so when a
parker finds his losses are frequent and excessive the
only alternative is to abandon his concession and take
another in a more favourably situated location.

The converse of the condition which eventuates in
doucain is that where the water becomes excessively
saline and of a density abnormally above that of ordinary
sea water. As the other extreme produces disease so also
does this. At Arcachon it is occasionally experienced on
the parks most distant from the sea in seasons of excep-
tional drought. Fortunately this condition is of very rare
occurrence and quite exceptional. The tissues of oysters
subjected to a sojourn in extremely saline waters shrink
greatly and undergo the same desiccating process that
fish do in course of salting or brining. If eaten in this
state the oyster is tough and indigestible.

Typhus and chambrage are diseases due to the
presence of an undue amount of fine mud in suspension
in the water. Parks with soft muddy bottom are liable
to this as the daily operations in the park disturb the
surface and when the tide flows over it the lio-ht mud
rises and passes to the gills of the oysters, so interfering
with nutrition. Typhus is in fact a starvation disease
induced by a great preponderance of non-digestible
inorganic particles over those of food value in the
material ingested. Chambrage is the name given to an
ailment which affects sections of the shell-secreting
surface of the mantle — an inflammation apparently. Its
visible result is the formation within the shell substance
of a cavity filled with malodorous putrescent fluid.

Much more serious is disease of the adductor muscle,
known erroneously at Arcachon as maladie du pied.
In some years, notably iSyy-yS, it has assumed an
epidemic form causing losses of considerable moment to
the parkers. It is a fungoid disease affecting the muscle
fibres of the great cylindrical adductor muscle which lies

59

transversely in the body, its ends attached respectively
to the right and left valves. By the contraction and
relaxation of this muscle the shell is alternately closed
and opened. When disease attacks ii, its fibres waste,
the adhesion of the ends of the muscle to the inner face
of the valves is impaired and the insertion surface
becomes rough, irregular, and often quite tubercular.
Concurrently the muscle gradually loses its power to
sustain prolonged contraction, the shell gapes and in
this condition the oyster becomes an easy prey to pre-
daceous foes. If it does not perish thus, life gradually
ebbs away, the oyster dying from debility, the inability
of the organs to carry on their respective functions.

The last disease of sufficient importance to warrant
notice is boudeuse, the virtual cessation of growth affect-
ing oysters en masse. It is a condition directly induced
by overcrowding in localities where the food supply is
not sufficiently superabundant as to sustain the rapidly
increasing demands made upon it by millions of young
oysters hastening to maturity. While the oysters are
quite small, their collective appetites may be adequately
satisfied but while the amount of food available may be
sufficient for a given quantity of one-year-olds, it may be
wholly inadequate for the same number at double that
age. Usually this disease does become apparent among
crowded oysters about the age of two years. The only
remedy is to reduce the numbers very greatly, but when
the ailment has affected the oysters for any considerable
period its stunting effect becomes established and even
when such oysters are transferred to parks where the
food supply is rich, they never develop into a really
satisfactory condition ; they retain their stunted appear-
ance more or less for the remainder of their existence.

From this list of enemies and diseases whereby the
stock may be depleted one might infer that oyster
culture is surrounded by very serious risks. In practice
the careful parker has seldom to think seriously of more
than two or three of these inimical influences against

6o

which he takes well recognized precautions ; danger
from the others, to the culturist who gives adequate
attention to his farm, is automatically eliminated, although
they may be rampant and spell ruin to him who slackens
in assiduity.

(g) Protective devices against enemies.

Permanent protective devices are confined almost
entirely to secure comparative immunity from the depre-
dations of fishes and crabs. Against the former, two
systems of defence are employed either separately
or, more usually, in combination. The principal and
universally adopted is that of protecting the park with
a tall and very closely planted hedge or palisade of pine
branches. These tall branches aie implanted in the soil
at intervals apart of i^ to 4 inches and vary in height
from 8 to 12 feet (PI. IV., fig. 15). No park is complete
without such a palisade either entirely surrounding it in
the case of one situated on a fiat environed by water
at low tide or only on the seaward margin if it be situated
on the littoral of the mainland. The tall branches,
pignots, should be long enough to reach the surface at
high tide, so that predatory oyster-eating fishes may
either be scared away or prevented entry if they make
the attempt. In point of fact many do find admission
usually through gaps in the fence where the stakes have
been broken or carried away during rough weather.
Those that do so enter as a rule pay the penalty with
their lives, the parkers finding them stranded or impri-
soned on the recession of the tide. Several rays were
so seen on the day I inspected the parks near Cape
Ferret and I was informed that the parkers often leave
the dead bodies among the oysters in the belief that this
scares other fish away.

The second system of defence against fishes, that of
studding the ground with pointed stakes, is usually
practised in conjunction with the first but either may be
used separately and singly. The stakes used are sticks

6i

pointed at each end. They are cut of sufficient length
for the upper portion to project 8 or 9 inches when the
lower end is embedded to a depth 4 to 5 inches in the
ground (PI. V., fig. 16). These pointed stakes or piquets
are very largely employed wherever the Portuguese
oyster is under cultivation, the voracious tere being most
partial to this species whose shell though thicker is
softer and without the very hard porcelain-like nacreous
lining that the indigenous oyster, O. edulis, possesses.
The piquets are very closely set, not more than 10 to
12 inches apart, and although obtained at a very cheap
rate (Rs. 1-8-0 to Rs. 1-14-0 per 100) from the pine
forests surrounding the basin, the great numbers re-
quired to afford adequate protection form a heavy item
in the parkers' annual budget. Against the expenses of
fencing and picquetage is to be set the fact that they
insure all but entire immunity irom one of the chief
sources of loss to which the culturist is exposed. It may
also be noted that fencing has the additional advantages
of providing boundary marks and serving as obstruc-
tions to the carrying away of oysters from the parks by
storm action and the floating power of certain sea-weeds.
In some cases where regular claire bunds are not em-
ployed, this surrounding outer fence is constructed in
composite fashion combining in itself the functions of
fencing and claire bund. In such case instead of being- a
simple and single row of closely set branches, it is double
rowed at the base, a space of 8 to 12 inches separating
an inner row of tall poles from an outer line of much
shorter stakes. This space to a height of 6 to 8 inches
is filled in with tightly packed brushwood, either the
feathery ends of pine branches or, better still, bundles of
tall-growing heather. In emplanting the outer row of
short stakes wliich project afoot or 18 inches above the
surface care is taken to place them at an angle inclining
slightly inwards in order to keep the brushwood firmly
in position.

It is necessary to note here that adjoining parks
may not have a common or party boundary fence ; the

62

conditions under which the parks are held stipulate for
the maintenance of a passage way one metre wide
between adjoining" concessions.

Crabs are the most active and persistent enemies of
the oyster culturist. They are combated in two ways,
either by measures intended to prevent their entrance
into the enclosures where young oysters are spread, or
by an active campaign against them by traps and other
means of capture. The approved method by which
exclusion is very successfully attained is an ingenious
system of fencing called blindage invented by Messrs. de
Montauge, prominent oyster culturists at Arcachon, and
practised very extensively in the parks along the western
shores of the basin.

The park to be safeguarded, which is always that
containing the youngest oysters belonging to the parti-

d

B

Fig. 6. — Section to show the Arrangement of Blindage Planking
employed to protect young oysters against crabs.

A. Inside of Enclosure where Oysters (o) are placed ;

B. Exterior of Enclosure.

c. Vertical Plank of Enclosure ;

d. Horizontal plank nailed to edge of c.

63

cular proprietor, is surrounded by a low barrier made of
planking or preferably of wire netting set in a wooden
frame, rising not more than 4 to 4^ inches above the
ground level (PI. V., fig. 17 and PL VI., fig. 19). To the
upper edge of this and at right angles to it a narrow
plank of thin wood 2\ to 4 inches wide, is nailed by one
margin in such a way that the remainder projects outwards
and away from the park.

To secure the vertical barrier from displacement as
well as to prevent crabs tunnelling beneath, it is neces-
sary to imbed the lower edge several inches in the soil.
This device is very practical and effective (see fig. 6).
Crabs find it impossible to climb over, falling back
whenever they attempt to pass the horizontal outwardly
projecting plank.

The cost of this protective device in wire netting
runs about 3 annas per yard ; an all-wood barrier costs
less but requires more frequent repair.

The traps used to supplement blindage by capturing
the crabs which tend to congregate along the outer
margin of the protective barriers are of two kinds. One

Fig. 7. — Section of Box-trap for Crabs.

p. Sloping Fassage into Trap ;

/. Hinged Door or Flap at inner End of Fassage ;

h. Hinge. /. Service lid ; b. Bait.

64

is a wooden box-trap, the other a wire-net cage-like
cylinder. The former is a roughly made rectangular
case provided with a trapped tunnel-shaped opening
towards the lower edge of one side. Half of the cover
is hinged to form a lid to give ready access to the
interior. Bait, preferably fragments of cuttle fish, is
placed inside the box and the lid secured. Crabs
attracted by the tempting odour emanating from the
box, crawl up the tunnel in the side, push open a light
flap or door hinged at the inner end of the passage and
drop into the interior.

When they try to get out they find their exit barred by
the trap door (see fig. 7). This trap is highly esteemed
for its high efficiency (PI. VI., fig. 18).

The cage trap is almost equally good ; it consists of
a cylinder of wire netting with a sleeve entrance in the
same material at one end. An iron ring around each
end serves as a supporting frame (PI. VI, fig. 19). A
heavy weight secures the trap in position ; it is baited
in the usual manner. With the diminished employment
of ambulance cases during recent years increasing
attention has been given to the trapping of crabs ;
indeed we may say that the adoption of the system of
blindage in conjunction with an energetic campaign
against crabs has been the means of enabling parkers to
dispense very largely with ambulance cases, and thereby
effect a great economy.

All other enemies save perhaps mussels are of
inferior importance and require no special protective
apparatus. The majority, as we have already seen, are
sufficiently held in check so long as the parks are
properly cared for and every effort made to ensure
cleanliness and good order.

Mussels when very aggressive may be combated by
the introduction of starfishes which are particularly fond
of mussels. There is however always a danger that they
may devote their attention to the brood-oysters. The
best remedy is hand picking and the diligent cleaning of
all sticks and stakes to which the mussels adhere, just as

PLATE I.

MADRAS FISHERIES, BULLETIN No. 5.

1

Bil*r3Lg f

JMiirtiiW*ilW-*>' ' 1 'iTOjWifigii

Fig. S. — Hopper barge used for the removal of sand, Cape
Ferret Oyster Parks.

Fig. 9. — Ax Oyster Parker's yard and store tank.

{Photo. J. 1 Ionic 1 1. \

PLATE II.

MADRAS FISHERIES, BULLETIN No. 5.

■•■■'

«.*A

Fig. 10. — Liming tiles, La Teste, Arcachon.

Fig. 11. — A barge laden with limed tiles, La Teste, Arcachon.

[Photo, f. Homell.\

PLATE III.

MADRAS FISHERIES, BULLETIN No. 5.

Fig. 12. — Filling ruches with tile collectors, Arcachon.

Fig. 13. — Nailing on the last battens. A ruche filled with tiles and

COVERED WITH A LAYER OF BRUSHWOOD.

[Photo. J. Hornell.]

I'LATE IV.

MADRAS FISHERIES, BULLETIN No. 5.

Fig. 14. — Arcachon. A series of ruche cases in position along the

MARGIN OF A CHANNEL.

Fig. 15. — An Arcachon oyster iark, showing two "ambulances,"

palisades and claires. the foreground is covered with

one-year old oysters.

[Pkoto. J. Hor>ifll.\

PLATE V.

MADRAS FISHERIES, BULLETIN No. 5.

Fig. 16. — An oyster park near Cape Ferret, showing how the
ground is staked against predatory fishes.

1 ~- — . ""^»5X

-v -,"*fc'

ih^_

Fig. 17. — Young oysters protected by "blindage" against the

ATTACKS OF CRABS. CAPE FERRET, ARCACHON.

[Photo. J. Hornell.]

PLATE VI.

MADRAS FISHERIES, BULLETIN No. 5.

Fig. iS. — Box-trap used to capture crabs on Arcachon oyster parks

Fig. 19. — Wire net crab-trap used at Cape Ferret, Arcachon,

outside of ground spread with young oysters and

surrounded by "blindage" planking whereon

m. l. mlchelet is seated.

[Photo. J. HornclL.

65

hand-picking is the most efficient check upon the increase
of Murex, ascidians, sea-weeds and other minor foes.

Birds occasionally seek to feed upon the brood-
oysters ; to frighten them away scare-crows are some-
times put up in the parks just as a farmer does on land.

(k) Expenses and Profits.

Capital outlay and the produce of an oyster park are
so dependent upon a number of extremely variable
conditions and circumstances that it is most difficult
to give even an approximate estimate of average profits
made by the oyster culturists of Arcachon. No two
parks are alike in situation, area and results. One may
have had originally a well consolidated surface requiring
little expenditure to fit it as culture ground, another
had a soft, muddy surface necessitating a large outlay
before it was fit to be used as an oyster park. Some
parks are specially open to one or other of the dangers
besetting this industry; those at the landward side of
the basin are liable to injury through fresh-water floods,
those at the seaward end to damage from gales. One
culturist may work a large area and so be able to conduct
his operations more economically than a neighbour
having but a small plot.

Then the situation of one park may be extremely
favourable for spat collection and its lessee then makes
handsome profits by the sale of brood oysters while
another is valueless for spat collection but may be
suitable for rearing and fattening ; the expenses and pro-
fits of these parks necessarily differ greatly, principally
owing to the varying amount of labour involved
in these several branches of culture. Such lands are
largely in the hands of the descendants of the original
concessionaires and exhibit by the high prices realized
when any do change hands, how high is their reputation
as profit-earning parks. After these parks of primary
value come a large number of parks having very second-
ary value where returns vary from moderate to poor —
where in many cases the laborious efforts of the whole
9

66

of the parker's family may give results that barely suffice
for the scantiest of daily needs.

Capital Expenditure. — Oyster culture at Arcachon
now counts so many years of development and expansion
behind it that no good virgin ground is now available for
new enterprise ; all suitable areas have long been taken
up and any one who wishes either to take up the business
of oyster culture or to extend his present holding can do
so only by buying up the interest of some other culturist.

For the better class of parks the transfer price
varies between wide limits ; between 6,000 to 15,000
francs per hectare (Rs. 3,600 to Rs. 9,000 for slightly less
than 2\ acres) for fairly good average situations ; parks
of special excellence, particularly those where the growth
of oysters is specially rapid, are valued very much higher,
from 20,000 to 40,000 francs per hectare (Rs. 12,000 to
24,000 per 2J acres) being demanded by their lessees.
Indeed even higher values than these are sometimes
placed upon the best situated parks ; one prominent
parker personally informed me that he had refused to'
sell at the rate of 40,000 francs per hectare and that he
would not sell under 50,000 francs the hectare and even
at this enormous price, over Rs. 12,000 per acre, he would
be loth to part with any portion of his concession, so
large are the profits he nets from it. Legally a conces-
sionaire has no rioht to ask such larQe sums for the
transfer of the ground he has rented from the State.
The law requires that the transferee shall merely reim-
burse the holder for the actual cost of improvements
effected ; it does not recognize the right of the holder
to unearned increment, but this regulation through the
concurrence of buyer and seller is regularly evaded.

On the transfer of a park in full working order and
of average value, costing anything from Rs. 1,500 to
Rs. 4,500 per acre, the new owner should find the
laying ground properly levelled, consolidated, and, when
in the form of a claire, surrounded by a low faggot bund ;
according to the situation of the park in the basin and
the species of oyster being reared, a certain area should

67

be staked against the ravages of fish ; a proper quota
of ruches, tiles and ambulances should be present
and the whole park protected by a palisade of pine
branches along the boundaries where this is necessary.

The cost of levelling and consolidating virgin ground
is so variable that it is impossible to give any figures ;
the items of expense consist of labour paid at the rate
of Rs. 1-12-9 (3 francs) per day and gravel costing
Rs. 2-6-5 Per 6 cubic metres. Bunded claires are now
little used, but even in their simplest and cheapest form
when faggots or brushwood bundles are employed, the
expenditure is considerable as the material alone costs
about 10 pies per bundle or about Rs. 5 per 100.
Usually some 30 ruches go to the acre ; tarred and
ready for use these cost Re. 1 each — Rs. 30 per acre.
One hundred tiles are packed in each ruche, 3,000 in all.
According to demand the price of these special tiles
fluctuates between Rs. 27 and Rs. 30 per 1,000, so the
complement of ruches and tiles per acre entails an
initial expenditure of about Rs. 1 15 for material alone.

Rearino- cases or ambulances are another source
of heavy initial expenditure, so much so that culturists
in these days of low prices for their products prefer
to run considerable risks rather than spend large sums
on this form of protection seeing that each case costs
Rs. 7 and has but a restricted life even though the
utmost care be taken to effect repairs annually. Eight
to ten cases are however commonly apportioned to each
acre as the proper complement and thus we see that this
item alone entails an expenditure of Rs. 56 to Rs. 70 per
acre every few years.

A still heavier expense is that of protecting the
larger sized oysters in the park against predatory fishes
and against crabs. The pointed sticks used for staking
the ground against such enemies as 1 rygon pastinaca
cost from Rs. 1-8-0 to Rs. 1-13-0 per 100, pine branches
for the outside palisade Rs. 9 to Rs. 15 per 1,000 accord-
ing to the length, and blindage against crabs, about
3 annas per yard.

68

The annual upkeep and working expenses of a park
of one hectare or 2 \ acres in extent is approximately as
follows * : — -

Upkeep of the park —
Sand and gravel

1«IK('S . ,. ...

Fascines for repair of claire
Planking

Palisade repair

Upkeep of apparatus —
Repair of ruches
Liming of 800 tiles ...
Renewal of implements
Upkeep of boat

Labour —

On the parks —

2 men for 250 tides @ 3 fcs.
each per tide = 1,500 fcs.

3 women for 250 tides® 2 fcs.

RS.

24
6
18
18
6

Rs.

72

60

78

3°
15

183

goo

each per tide = 1,500 tcs. goo

more — ■

Detroquage ... ... 60

„ 1,860

Expenses connected with sale and

despatch
Rental

., 120
» 32

Miscellaneous

Rs.

» 33

Total

2,300

To this total must be added the interest upon the
capital expenditure incurred, and the unforeseen expenses
which generally become necessary from one cause or
another, as for instance damage caused by stormy
weather or the purchase of brood oysters to make good
shortage of collection.

The expenditure given infers most economical work-
ing, the concessionaire and his family labouring them-
selves on the park. When family assistance is not

* These figures are adapted from those given by Boubes in his L1 ostt eiculture
h Arcachon, 19O9.

69

available and all the labour has to be hired expendi-
ture is considerably increased and profits decrease
correspondingly. Everything taken into account the
working expenses of an ordinarily well cultivated park
range anywhere from Rs. 1,100 to Rs. 1,700 per acre;
under what may be termed high-culture, these figures
must be considerably increased.

To arrive at an estimation of the produce of a park
moderately well situated is particularly difficult ; the
ordinary parker keeps no books and can furnish no
profit and loss accounts and without records extending
over a considerable number of years we can obtain no
really reliable estimate of average profits.

To attempt an approximation, we may take it that
the 8,000 collector tiles pertaining to a park of one
hectare in area obtain a spat fall of 2 J millions of young.
Sediment, inclement weather and numerous enemies
thin the ranks of these brood oysters very considerably
especially while they remain attached to the tiles, and the
parker does fairly well if he rears one-third, say 800,000,
to the saleable age of 18 months when the oyster should
be 5 centimetres in diameter. The eventual amount of
profit now depends upon the state of the market ;
according as the price may be from Rs. 6 to Rs. 9 per
1,000, the produce will realize a total of from Rs. 4,800 to
Rs. 7,200 per hectare or roughly Rs. 2,000 to Rs. 3,000
per acre. The annual expenses of this park we had
before estimated at from Rs. 1,100 to Rs. 1,700 per acre,
giving a net profit of from Rs, 900 to Rs. 1,300 per
acre. Unfortunately for the majority of the oyster
culturists of Arcachon the bulk of the parks are of
inferior situation and being handicapped by nature and
the limitation of their owners' capital the profits they
yield their lessees are very much smaller than in the
estimation above given — in a word the profits of an
Arcachon oyster culturist may range anywhere from
Rs. 200 to Rs. 2,000 per acre according to situation.

These figures are liable to lead to false and exago'e-
rated conceptions of the prosperity of the parkers unless

;o

it be borne steadily in mind that Arcachon oyster culture
is essentially an intensive industry and that to obtain
profit, concentration of attention on quite a small area is
imperative. Most of the calculations given have been
in hectares ; in reality the majority of the parks do not
reach this and if we remember that a parker may have no
more than an acre at his disposal we see that while the
profits made under the conditions prevailing at Arcachon
may in many cases ensure a comfortable living they do
not endow more than a very small proportion of the
number with riches. With a fair degree of comfort
assured if economy be practised the chief benefits which
oyster culture confers upon the maritime population of
Arcachon are the sense of independence it confers, the
self-respect it induces, and the enterprising spirit which
it fosters.

(/) Present conditions and future prospects of the

industry.

For several years past Arcachon producers have
found the disposal of their oysters at remunerative
prices a matter of the utmost difficulty. Large profits can
still be made by those possessing first-class locations, a
fair living is within reach of those having moderately
good or second-class holdings, but to those whose parks
fall into within the third and last category — and these are
in the majority — times have been and continue to be
difficult ; to these latter their trade gives either a bare
subsistence or it is carried on as a supplementary calling
to another and more reliable one. In consequence of the
reduced profits now ruling, the less favourably situated
parks are rapidly passing out of cultivation, such as give
remunerative returns only when prices attain a high
level.

In 1905, 6,006 parks comprising a total area of 3,095
hectares (say 8,000 acres) were in occupation ; the
produce being estimated at 420,000,000 sold at an
average of Rs. 7 per 1,000. In 1906 the number of
concessions fell to 4,580, a large number of the less

hr

T

prosperous holders selling- their rights and their stock
for what they would fetch in order to buy motor boats
and gear to engage in the then rapidly developing and
better paying sardine fishery. The number of holdings
still further decreased in 1907, 3,895 only being registered,
and in this year we find also a fall in the area culti-
vated— the total surface under culture being under 3,000
hectares for the first time since 1885. The precise area
occupied wai 2,833 hectares. Shrinkage in the area
cultivated still continues, and I understand that at the
end of 1908 less than 3,000 parks covering a superficies
of not more than 2,500 hectares were in exploitation.

Three principal causes account for the decreased
profits of the Arcachon oyster culturist. They are over-
production, lack of co-operation and organization among
the producers, and displacement of the indigenous oyster
by the cheaper and hardier Portuguese species.

The first and the last of these adverse factors are
correlated in large measure, for, were it not for the
steadily increasing competition of the Portuguese, the
Arcachon native would be readily saleable still. As it is,
the French public has learned to appreciate the good
value obtained when it purchases the Portuguese ; the
oyster parkers of the famous fattening centres of Oleron
and Marennes have realized that the cheapness of the
newcomer has created an oyster-consuming clientele
among classes who could not afford this luxury so long
as the higher priced indigenous oyster held the field
alone, and have adapted their business accordingly.
They have arranged their operations so that they can
cater alike for the wealthy and the comparatively poor ;
for the one they provide the expensive luscious green
Marennes native, for the other the large and succulent
Portuguese, frequently combining the culture of both
and maintaining thereby a large portion of the prosperity
of pre-Portuguese days. Not so the Arcachon culturists ;
they boycotted the Portuguese as long as they could and
they refused to give its production any attention till they
found the sale of their wares falling off before the steady

72

demand of a large section of the public for Portuguese.
They are now falling into line with other French centres ;
in 1907, their sales of Portuguese oysters till then
negligible, suddenly rose to a value of 809,000 francs
(Rs. 4,85,400), and are now steadily rising annually.
The bulk of the parkers, however, still limit their efforts
to the culture of the native oyster and as the competition
of the Portuguese renders their oysters both low priced
and slow of sale, stock has accumulated to such a oreat
extent — about 1,000,000,000 in 1907 — as to entail over-
crowding with its train of baneful consequences, growth
stuntino- and disease. What intensifies the trouble, if
indeed it is not largely accountable for it, is the restric-
tion upon liberty of sale imposed upon the local trade
years ago at the request of the culturists themselves,
whereby no oysters may be despatched outside the basin
under 5 cms. diameter. Arcachon trade has never been
primarily one of sale to the general public ; it has been
largely directed to the supply of stock for fattening to
oyster centres which do not produce sufficient brood for
their rearing grounds and greening claires. These take
decreasing quantities year by year and the position is one
which the Arcachon parkers find difficult to adjust.
Arcachon on the whole, is not well adapted to fatten
large quantities of first class oysters. The Arcachon
oyster when mature has the reputation of being distinctly
second class and without the advantage of a fattening
sojourn on better situated grounds it is difficult of sale in
competition with the Portuguese, its size being distinctly
inferior and its superiority in flavour a matter of small
moment with those who have become accustomed to the
Portuguese ; for cooking purposes the latter is the more
useful.

Distinct relief to the Arcachon trade would probably
be felt if the producers were at liberty to sell their brood
at any age they please ; they would then find an outlet
with an entirely different class of buyers to those who
take the 5 centimetre size, for example, the English trade,
which not infrequently buys very young brood in great

73

quantities from Auray, would be open to favourable
offers which Arcachon with its super-abundant spat falls
is particularly well fitted to make. As an unprejudiced
outsider I should certainly advise the Arcachon parkers
to obtain complete liberty of trade, and at the same time
to take steps to limit the annual production both in the
interests of higher prices and to insure improvement in
the health and the rate of growth of the stock reared.

Lack of co-operation and organization are defects
largely consequent upon that chief merit of the Arcachon
system of oyster culture — the multiplicity of small hold-
ings. With over 2,000 concessionaires concerned, the
majority plain fishermen and sailors, it is most difficult to
secure co-ordination of effort. Several times, in 1886,
1890, 1892, and in 1904, Associations have been formed
to forward by co-operation and combined organization
the well-being of the local oyster industry. Time after
time these Associations have lapsed through inanition
or disagreement and no combination now exists among-
producers for mutual benefit. A certain amount of good
has undoubtedly resulted from the various efforts which
have been made, but the failures have been so many that
Arcachon parkers are now inclined to look askance at
any new proposition to found another mutual society to
promote the common welfare. This is greatly to be
deplored, for such a society can work good in many
directions. It is the medium through which excessive
over-production may be combated ; if directed aright, it
should be able to do much to increase the consumption
of its members' products ; depot agents to push these
goods might be appointed in all great centres of popu-
lation in France, Belgium, England and Switzerland
(German tariffs are an effective barrier to entry into that
country). Incessant agitation should be kept up to
obtain better transport facilities ; no peace should be
given the local Railway Company till it consents to a
substantial lowering of rates, and to this end the Asso-
ciation would bring the whole weight of its influence
to bear upon Government. In passing I may mention
10

74

that the freight on oysters from Arcachon to Bordeaux,
a distance of 35 miles, is Rs. 8 per ton, an exceedingly
heavy rate. The best argument for a great lowering of
the rates lies in the practical certainty that with fair
organization of the trade such rates would eventuate in
largely increased exports from Arcachon by rail. But in
spite of a supposed penchant for political revolution, the
French peasant-proprietors — to whom the Arcachon
oyster culturists belong — are among the most conservative
of people.

In connection with this matter of co-operation, it is
noteworthy to observe that no mutual or other insurance
Associations exist to ensure the members against extra-
ordinary losses, although such exist among the sea-
fishermen of the district.

Apart however from the potential good effects of
co-operation and organization among the producers upon
the Arcachon oyster trade, the stress of past years has
been engaged automatically in gradually improving
matters. The worst of the parks are passing out of
cultivation, and with a large diminution in the area of
the parks, overproduction is becoming less marked. At
the most critical moment, when many parkers were
feeling the pinch of bad trade most keenly, the rising
sardine fishery with its promise of large profits called for
numerous volunteers, for men as fishermen and for women
as hands in the canning factories.

With the exercise of patience, restraint, mutual help
and reasonable enterprise a fairly bright future should be
assured for the Arcachon oyster industry. There is no
call for discouragement and there is definite promise of
better times ; the signs of improvement are already
apparent. Certainly the larger cultivators, the men
disposing of ample working capital, are not disheartened
and are making good profits as I learned most definitely
during my recent visit. From this the holders of small
concessions should take example and by co-operation
attain the same satisfactory results.

75

V.- PRINCIPAL CHARACTERISTICS OF

OTHER EUROPEAN SYSTEMS OF

OYSTER CULTIVATION.

In concluding this short review of the Arcachon
oyster culture industry as it presented itself to my eyes
in the summer of last year, it will be of some value if I
note briefly the outstanding features of difference met
with in the systems practised elsewhere in Europe.

The scale of development characterising oyster farm-
ing in those European countries where the industry in
some form or other is worked on any important scale
runs as follows in order of specialization, viz., Germany,
Portugal, Spain and Belgium, England, Italy, Holland,
France.

Germany is the lowest in the scale of oyster-farming
countries and indeed nothing deserving the name of
cultivation exists there, the severity of the German winter
rendering foreshore operations a matter of too great
expense, difficulty and risk. Under the circumstances
probably the wisest course has been followed, the exten-
sive natural oyster beds which cover a great extent of the
bottom of the shallow Wattenmeer, lying between the
west coast of Schleswig-Holstein and the north Frisian
Islands, being leased out by the Government to a single
firm. Great care is taken by the Fishery Inspectors to
prevent more oysters being removed from the beds than
are replaced annually by new growth. These beds are
an instance of the beneficent results which accrue when
the intelligent regulation and production of a natural
fishery be taken in hand prior to excessive depletion.
It was the want of such prevision as the Germans have
shown, which has caused the ruin of almost all the
English and French natural beds and, nearer home, the
local beds in the Sind creeks.

In Portugal the reproduction of the natural beds of
the Portuguese oyster (O. angnlatct) is so enormous that
no other efforts are required to stock the foreshore laying
grounds, than the collection of young brood from the

76

gravel and shells of the bottom of the Tagus estuary.
No other culture is practised nor is any required. It
should here be noted that the Portuguese oyster is different
in method of spatting and general habits from the oyster
(O. ediilis) indigenous to England, France and Germany ;
it is also hardier and with a much greater appetite than the
" native " — as a consequence its growth is more rapid.

Culture in Spain and Belgium consists almost entirely
in relaying young oysters obtained principally from the
chief centres of production in France.

In England a great deal of the same elementary
culture takes place, the stock being obtained from France,
Holland, and even the United States. At Whitstable and
along the Essex coast cultivation is carried several steps
further. In these localities there exist certain " common
grounds" open to dredging by any one, whereon in
favourable years considerable deposits of spat are found.
This is dredged up and sold to culturists who lay the
spat first on that particular portion of their grounds where
growth is known to be rapid. At a later date the oysters
are re-dredged and placed elsewhere to fatten. Most of
the operations entail dredging, a fleet of handy dredging
smacks being employed by the Corporations and Joint
Stock Companies which control these fisheries. The
Colchester authorities also employ a small steamer built
and fitted specially for this work and experiments are at
present being carried out with a view to replace the smacks
by handy motor boats. On the Essex coast special pre-
cautions are necessary during winter to safeguard the
stock from frost and the harmful effects of snow water.
■No natural oyster beds now exist and no breeding reserves
are maintained at any of these English oyster culture
centres ; the stock of marketable oysters in the various
estuarine concessions is supposed to serve. As a con-
sequence of this, the spat-fall is frequently inadequate
for local requirements and in such years large consign-
ments of brood oysters are imported from France, chiefly
from Auray. This necessitates heavy additional expendi-
ture both per se and indirectly, as oysters reared from

77

French brood do not realize nearly such high prices as
do real natives. After three years' sojourn in English
waters their flavour is almost as good as that of a true
native, but the little tell-tale cement mark remaining from
the time they were detached from the collectors reveals
their foreign birth and the astute middleman, who does
not, I fear, disdain to sell them to the public as natives,
demands and receives a heavy reduction from " native"
prices when purchasing any of this class of oyster.

Cultivation in Holland is based upon the French
system as practised at Arcachon. To meet local condi-
tions a number of modifications have been introduced,
the most important being that the collector tiles are not
stacked in ruches but are piled loose in low wall-like rows
parallel with the shore at low tide level. Usually there
are several ranks of these tiles ranged one behind the
other. The reason for this modification which conduces
greatly to simplicity and economy in working, is the
stiffer nature of the bottom on these Dutch collecting
orounds. To guard against frost, the tiles with their catch
of spat are transferred in autumn to pits above tide-
mark, where they remain till the spring when the brood-
oysters are detached from the tiles and placed in
ambulances. Early in the next autumn they are sown
on the deep-water section of the concessionaire's holding1
where they remain for two or three years till they
become of marketable size and condition.

Much of the prosperity of Dutch oyster farming is
due to the abundance of spat on their grounds, the
product of the immense breeding reserves which have
accumulated along the seaward base of the coast dykes in
consequence of an old regulation which prohibits dredg-
ing within 547 yards of these great embankments.

Oyster culture in Italy antedates that in any other
country and the methods there pursued, in one instance
dating back to a successful Roman experiment made at
the beginning of the Christian era, inspired Coste with
the ideas from which gradually developed the present
great French industry.

78

The most extensive of Italian oyster-farming grounds
are situated in the Mare Piccolo, a shallow landlocked
bay at the head of the Gulf of Tarentum. Here oyster
farming is carried on not on the sea bottom but at different
levels in the water itself, a system thoroughly scientific in
theory and equally sound in commercial practice in this
particularly conditioned locality. The plan adopted is to
drive a number of posts into the firm calcareous sand
forming the bottom of the basin so that a portion may
project beyond the surface of the water. These posts or
piles are usually placed at the four corners of a culture
plot ; between them extends a network of cords from
which are hung bundles or fascines of brushwood. Oyster
spat settles usually upon these in great abundance, the
play of the water upon the fascines as they sway about at
the end of their suspensory cord preventing any accumu-
lation of mud. Bathed in the nutrient tide these oysters
grow much more rapidly than if laid upon the bottom, a
fact the farmers recognize precisely, for all oysters which
become detached and fall to the bottom owing to the decay
of the bark to which they were attached, are gathered up
and placed in baskets to be again suspended from the
overhead cordage.

The highest development of oyster culture is however
seen in the fattening and greening- claires of Marennes
and other places on the Seudre in France. These claires
are not the rough and ready shallow ponds covered twice
daily by the tide which Arcachon parkers find sufficient
for their needs ; they are elaborate reservoirs excavated
on land and connected with the sea by sluices. They are
above the level of neap tides and the water within can be
renewed only during spring tide. Even then the whole
water is not emptied out and renewed ; only enough
water is changed to keep the contents in health. The food
of the oysters being fattened and greened is supplied by
the enormous production of diatoms induced by the
shallowness and peculiarly favourable composition of the
soil forming the bottom and walls of the claires themselves.
The details of this branch of oyster culture are of the

79

highest interest but this is not the place to do more than
make a passing reference to them in order to round off
this enumeration of the principal variations and develop-
ments of oyster farming.

In the case of the above mentioned countries, with
the exception of France and perhaps of Italy, the State
has adopted the system of obtaining the highest rental
possible for concessions to fish and farm oysters within
its estuaries and harbours. This has resulted in throwing
the industry almost entirely into the hands of capitalists
and wealthy Corporations. The French system of ex-
ploiting the oyster resources of its coasts is based on an
entirely different principle ; the fundamental idea in this
case is to encourage the small holder, to build up a nume-
rous class of independent culturists and to help them to
success by charging trifling rentals for the areas conceded
for cultural purposes. The French Government is ex-
tremely solicitous to maintain a large and hardy maritime
population ; the adequate manning of its navy is a con-
sideration to which it has long given the utmost attention
and the privilege of small oyster-farming concessions is
one of the means it employs to strengthen that section of
the population from which the personnel of its naval fleet
is derived.

VI.— APPLICABILITY OF FRENCH METHODS
OF OYSTER-CULTURE IN INDIA.

(a) The conditions prevailing in India.

Numerous small natural oyster beds exist in the
creeks and estuaries of India but no oyster culture is
practised anywhere. Save in Sind and Kutch no Govern-
ment has asserted authority over beds of edible oysters,
although elsewhere such are almost universally consi-
dered as pertaining exclusively to the State. In the
Madras Presidency at the present time no exploitation
takes place save that here and there a man may cull a few
oysters to fill a small order for a club or hotel. Demand
is all but absent, to a large extent due to distrust of the

8o

hygienic conditions under which the oysters grow and to
the lack of any organized distributing agency. Looking
to the woeful history of the beds in Sind we should be
thankful for this lack of demand as it has prevented the
extinction of the beds and thus furnishes the opportunity
to build up some useful culture system without being
beset by the difficulties that would be present if depletion
had taken place. To show the extreme hazard of
postponing the enforcement of regulations for the pro-
tection of natural beds against uncontrolled exploitation
till diminished production becomes clamant for assist-
ance, we have already dealt with the history of the
Arcachon beds during the first half of last century at
some length. India shows a virtual parallel in the case
of the Sind beds which a few years ago were exceedingly
prolific and made Karachi famous for the excellence of
its oysters throughout Northern India ; to-day the supply
is not sufficient to meet local demand and the beds are
practically wrecked. To point the necessity for the early
assumption by the Government of effectual control over
the principal oyster beds in the Madras Presidency, it
may be very useful to tell the story briefly of these
particular oyster beds on the coast of Sind.

The oysters of that district have been held in high
estimation by Europeans ever since the British occupa-
tion in 1843, but the reputation was largely local till the
time when Karachi became connected with the Railway
system of the Punjab and the North-Western Provinces.
Ice was available at the same time and as a consequence
of these two factors and of the excellence of the mollusc,
a brisk and rapidly expanding trade sprang up in the
supply of oysters to regimental messes, clubs, hotels and
private individuals. To save freight and ensure proper
icing the oysters were shucked before despatch, the
sendings beino- made in sealed tin canisters embedded in
broken ice. Low prices and good quality encouraged
consumption, and many thousands of dozens were de-
spatched by train annually in the hey-day of the trade.
Towards the end of this period the price paid by oyster

8i

traders to the villagers of the creeks who did most of the
collecting was ai the rate of Rs. 3 per 100 dozen, frac-
tionally less than half an anna per dozen. Considering
that several score men were engaged in the business its
great extent may be readily inferred from this rate.

In 1894, considerably greater efforts were required to
gather a given quantity than in previous years and the
middle-men had to increase their purchase rate to Rs. 5
per 100 dozen, as the villagers found it no longer remu-
nerative to work for Rs. 3 per 100 dozen. The first
note of alarm for the depletion of the beds was sounded
in this year, the Customs authorities at Karachi reporting
to Government that the beds in all the creeks were being
exhausted at a rapid rate, so much so that several
Karachi firms interested in the supply of oysters to up-
country clients were trying to arrange for supplies from
the Baluchistan coast to make up for the ever increasing
difficulty in obtaining sufficient supplies from the home
district. One officer reported that masses of empty
shells were all that remained to mark the spots where
at one time boat loads of oysters were obtainable. He
predicted the entire exhaustion of the beds unless
measures were at once adopted to prevent further uncon-
trolled spoliation. The next year the scarcity was further
emphasized and instances are given of oyster boats
returning to Karachi after eight to ten days' search in the
creeks with not even a quarter load.

The authorities were thoroughly aroused to the
gravity of the situation and since 1896 the following
measures have been adopted in the endeavour to prevent
further exhaustion of the beds and to renew their pros-
perity, namely : —

(a) The observance of a close season from 15th

April to 1st October in each year.
(6) The closing of the creeks by compartments to
oyster fishing in addition to the annual close-
season, a two-years' rotation being observed.
(c) Prohibition of the removal of oysters less than

2 inches or more than 6 inches in length.
11

82

(d) The licensing of the fishermen engaged in
collecting oysters for market, in order the
better to exercise control over their actions.
These efforts to improve the position have been in
force over a period of thirteen years and to-day after a
careful examination of the principal creeks on the Sind
Coast where oysters were once abundant, I am reluc-
tantly obliged to describe them as completely exhausted,
and as no longer of any commercial value. To take one
instance — one very extensive creek with several far ex-
tending branches which had been closed to fishing", was
re-opened during my inspection and I came across one
oyster boat, the first and only one on the scene. Every
bed in the main creek and its branches had been despoiled
during the two days this boat's crew had been at work ;
practically every oyster that had grown up during the
period of closure had been taken away and withal the
boat was not full and the men were deploring the
unfruitfulness of their labours. Well mio-ht the late
Chief Collector of Customs in Sind, Mr. E. H. Aitken,
the lamented " Eha ", write in 1904 in a letter to the
Commissioner, " We do not need to look for any other
explanation of the almost total disappearance of edible
oysters from places which used to furnish them in abund-
ance than the reckless destruction of them which has
followed upon the increased demand since the practice of
packing them in ice made it possible to despatch them
to distant stations all over the interior."

At the present time none of the Sind beds can
possibly become commercially productive unless they be
given a prolonged rest and some simple cultural mea-
sures be introduced to assist nature. A rest, by closure
for several years, by itself will be of doubtful benefit.
It may be of appreciable advantage, but there is no
certainty about the results. I am indeed inclined to think
that matters have gone too far for nature unaided to
renew the old prosperity within any reasonable time-
limit. Besides, the area of hard bottom available for
oyster attachment and growth is very limited in the

83

creeks — tiny reefs of dead shells encompassed by vast
expanses of soft mud ; I fear the level of these reefs has
been so reduced by the spoliation of the oystermen that
the mud around is covering up and fouling- the greater
part of the available cultch and that even if oyster spat
be present in the water of the creeks it may be lost for
want of clean surfaces for its attachment. Hence the
need for man to come to nature's help and among other
measures to ensure that the area occupied by clean cultch
shall be increased. It will probably be found necessary
also to introduce quantities of mother-oysters from out-
side localities to provide the supplies of spat needed to
re-populate the exhausted beds.

Kutch has been linked with Sind as the other Indian
locality where the State has exercised some control over
the edible oyster trade. In this case it has been restricted
to the imposition of a gradually increasing export tax
upon each boat load of oysters collected for the Karachi
market on the Kutch coast. For some years previous to
1904, the rate levied was Rs. 15 per boat load. In 1904,
it was raised to Rs. 50 as the Kutch Durbar, fearing that
their beds should suffer the fate of exhaustion which had
fallen upon those of Sind, decided to endeavour to
diminish the drain on their beds by this heavy increase
in the export charge. The Karachi oyster merchants
endeavoured to evade the effect of this increased levy
by despatching boats of greater capacity, and the Kutch
Durbar has had, I understand, to double the charge,
which when last I heard, was understood to be Rs. 100
per boat load. In view of the risks of the voyage from
Kutch to Karachi, this is well nigh prohibitive and so
\\hile the Kutch authorities may be conserving their
beds they are burking the oyster trade of their State.

Before I leave this portion of my subject, it is neces-
sary to state that the mode of occurrence and the habits
of the Sind oysters approximate very closely to those
typical of oyster-patches in the muddy backwaters of
the Madras coasts. One description will serve for both
localities, although the oysters themselves appear to
12

84

belong to separate species, that of Sind being charac-
terized by a white adductor scar, that of Madras (Pulicat
and Ennore as typical examples) being purplish black.
Both species appear to be related to the robust mud-
loving Portuguese oyster of European commerce
(O. angulata) ; like the latter the sexes in these Indian
species are separate.

In the Indus creeks on the coast of Sind, no rocky
out-crops occur, neither pebbles nor gravel is to be found
anywhere. The cultch to which the oysters adhere
consists solely of the accumulated shells of former oyster
generations. In almost all cases the oyster patches occur
close to the low-water level of spring-tides ; usually the
beds are more or less uncovered at such times. The
oysters, nearly all dead, seen in the Sind creeks may
attain relatively enormous size. I have note of a dead
valve measuring 15 inches in length and I have seen
several in which the hinge region alone measured from
7 to 8 inches in length. When growing in muddy
creeks the Sind oysters are characteristically elongate,
long and narrow and typical " slipper-oysters." The
oysters in any patch tend to segregate into clusters
composed usually of from 5 to 12 or more individuals.
A very notable feature characterising the habit of growth
is the way the oysters in these clumps retain their own
individuality ; each keeps the greater part of its shell free
from cohesion with those of its neighbours due to a
slight amount of radial divergence in the direction of
growth among the several oysters. This habit produces
very serviceable clusters, readily separable into units
as the area of cohesion is small and limited to the
massive dorsal region of the valves. The joint made by
the adherent surfaces is also imperfect, rendered weak
by the muddy scum present on the older valves when
the younger come to attach to them.

Similar conditions entail similar habits in the case of
muddy creeks and channels in estuaries and backwaters
on the Madras coast, but there are many localities where
stones and more or less consolidated and stable sandy

*5

mud occur affording less precarious footing- for the oysters.
In such places the oysters are found to be less disposed
to cluster, the slipper-form is less well marked and a
varying proportion of the oysters exhibit a tendency to
broaden and assume the more acceptable outline of the
Enolish native. In Pulicat Lake for instance we find
considerable deposits in shallow water on a fairly stiff
bottom of muddy sand under ideal conditions for culture,
but it is noteworthy that so far as the history of these
deposits can be traced, they are not natural beds but
have arisen accidentally through human agency ; they
appear to be the offspring of store-oysters laid down in
these places years ago by oystermen in days when a fair
demand for Pulicat oysters existed in Madras. The
natural beds are those rising from the bottom of muddy
channels and creeks, exactly as is seen in the case of the
Sind creeks.

The most extensive beds of oysters in Southern India
with which I am acquainted are those of Cochin harbour.
These occupy a very extensive area and are never
uncovered by the tide. Few are used as food and no
export trade is carried on, nevertheless large quantities
are collected annually by means of shallow-water diving.
(Four to six feet of water is the usual depth over these
beds.) The use to which they are put is interesting—
they are used as backing for the piles along canal banks
and to fill hollows and serve as foundations for dwelling
houses in the low-lying marshy sections of the native
town.

(d) The extent to which culture is possible in India ;
character' of the control regulations and
assistance needful.

It behoves Madras to profit from the object lesson
provided by the complete depletion of the once prosper-
ous Sind oyster beds for lack of adequate protective
regulations and to make an early application of well-
considered and easily enforced bye-laws for the safe-
guarding of presently existing beds in those selected

86

localities which may be considered worthy of attention
and suitable for attempting the development of an
oyster industry of considerable extent. When once
the organization of such local measures becomes effective
then the simpler of the culture methods as developed at
Arcachon may be introduced and experimented with and
concurrently the example of Karachi emulated in catering
for the home market by means of the rail despatch of
shucked oysters in ice to up-country and distant stations ;
in the event of Pulicat Lake being made a centre for
this industry, the facilities afforded by the East Coast
Railway for rapid access to the great markets of Calcutta
are ideal. In the cold weather season iced sendinsfs
should reach consumers in Calcutta in excellent condi-
tion if the most elementary precautions be observed.
Local demand in Madras city may also be relied on to
develop to considerable dimensions if oysters of recog-
nized good quality and known to be grown under whole-
some conditions be regularly obtainable ; in this case the
oysters may be delivered in their shells, unshucked. If
the trade be handled in proper fashion home demand may
be counted upon to develop rapidly and should prove
equal to the production for some years to come. Even-
tually should the production prove greatly in excess of
these requirements, the surplus should readily find a
profitable outlet in the form of those preserved oyster
products so popular in America. Desiccated oysters are
also in large demand in China but I am doubtful if this
form of trade would pay producers seeing that prices for
this product are relatively very low and that Indian
oystermen would be necessarily handicapped with the
expenses of culture as the areas of our natural oyster
beds are restricted.

So far as my personal acquaintance with the two
coasts of Madras extends, I consider that the greater
potentialities of profitable oyster culture lie on the East
Coast. Excluding Cochin and Travancore I know of no
really good locality where culture on an extensive and
economical scale can be attempted on the Malabar and

8?

South Canara coast line ; along this coast there is no
possibility of oyster culture in the open sea ; there are no
land-locked bays with permanent and wide seaward en-
trances ; in their place are numerous wide river-estuaries
connected with more or less extensive systems of back-
waters ; at present I know of none within British limits
suitable for oyster culture. All suffer from the disability
of being subject to the action of long-continued torrents
of fresh-water Hoods during the rainy season. These
floods last so long that oysters have no chance of surviving
through the rainv season in those reaches where culture
alone would pay. Apart from Cochin, the oysters now
supplied for table use on the Malabar coast come almost
entirely from small rocky patches near the shore or just
within the entrances of estuaries.

On the East Coast the conditions for oyster culture
are more favourable. The annual rainfall is light and an
ever increasing network of irrigation channels, with their
complement of tanks and anicuts, intercepts in large
measure the rush of flood water to the sea when the rains
are on and by this limiting and moderating influence
counteracts to a very large degree the injurious effect
which long continued floods have upon estuarine oyster
beds. No culture can be successful if the specific
gravity of the water bathing the beds falls appreciably
lower than 1*015 for any considerable period. We have
seen that at Arcachon the very moderate floods which
an abnormally rainy season induces entail heavy loss
through disease and death although the basin receives
a vast volume of tidal water twice a day.

It is among the estuaries and backwaters of the
East Coast that we must search for the most suitable
localities to develop oyster fisheries. I have already
in Bulletin No. 4 indicated Pulicat Lake as well adapted
for this purpose ; its proximity to Madras would facilitate
the supervision of operations. It already possesses
several extensive patches of vigorous oysters to supply
the needful spat; to the east of the Pulicat Islands
extends a large shallow water area with sufficiently

88

consolidated bottom to serve well the purposes of an
oyster culturist. The situation is ideal for the purpose,
bounded as it is on two sides by scattered patches of
adult oysters, with a bottom of sandy mud stiff enough
for collector tiles to be laid out in piles as in Holland
without the protection of expensive collector cases
(ruches) ; food supply in the form of diatoms is super-
abundant, the shallowness of the water, i to 2 feet at low
tide, admits of operations being carried on daily with the
greatest of ease, and proximity to the channel connecting
the lake with the sea ensures the maximum of those
conditions which make for health and rapidity of growth.
Should the experiment prove successful and a larger area
require to be devoted to culture, over 1,000 acres are
available on the flats between Karimanal and the main-
land, where conditions prevail little if at all inferior to
those characterising the Hats first mentioned.

The creeks around Nizampatam near the embouchure
of the Kistna, and those near certain of the Godavari
outlets are also suggested as likely to be suitable but as I
have not yet had an opportunity of visiting these places,
I place Pulicat Lake in the forefront for the present as
the most adaptable and accessible locality for the
inauguration of simple cultural methods. It is however
absolutely essential to the carrying out of any scheme
that steps be taken at an early date to afford protection
to the natural oyster beds now existing in Pulicat Lake
and other backwaters where culture may eventually
become possible. It is infinitely easier to destroy a
natural bed than it is to re-create it. The present time
too is specially critical seeing that the middleman is
turning' attention in increasing decree to exploiting
the profits of our fisheries. A vigorous campaign of
one energetic dealer would 00 far in a single season
to occasion almost irreparable damage to the Pulicat
beds, so limited is their extent. That the Government
has the power to dispose of these beds at will and to
enforce regulations for their fishing is justified by the
accepted laws of all nations which give this matter

89

attention — even in India we have ample precedent in the
action of the Bombay Government which under section
37 of their Land Revenue Code (Bombay Act V of 1879)
exercises the rights of proprietorship over the oyster
beds in the Sind Creeks, in the levy of heavy duties by
the Kutch Durbar on oysters removed from the creeks
on their coast, and lastly in the power which the Madras
Government through the medium of the Public Works
Department has taken to itself to lease out the collection
of small clams (inatti) along the course of the Bucking-
ham Canal and actually within Pulicat Lake itself. The
action of the French Government in regard to Arcachon
has also been detailed at some length on a preceding-
page, and there can be, I think, no doubt as to the
proprietorship of the State in all shell-fish fisheries in
areas affected by tidal waters. It is desirable, therefore,
if the Government desires to foster an edible oyster
fishery that notification, in whatever may be the proper
legal manner, be made interdicting till further notice,
under suitable penalty, all collection and dealing in
edible oysters from the beds in Pulicat Lake. The beds
around Pulicat being thus protected consideration may
then be given to the mode in which development of these
dormant fishery resources may best be effected. Here
as in other new departures in the country, it will be
necessary for the State to do the pioneering. I would
therefore propose for the consideration of Government
that the Fisheries Department be directed to take a
small area of suitable bottom in Pulicat Lake and there
carry on experiments based upon simplified Arcachon
methods as described in the preceding pages, directed
towards ascertaining the most economical and effective
methods of oyster culture suitable to the particular
conditions prevailing in a tropical country in general and
in Pulicat Lake in particular. These experiments should
be directed to ascertain —

(a) the best form of collector to use,

(6) the most suitable method of arranging the
collectors,

90

(r) the proper season at which to place the
collectors in position,

(d) the age at which detroquage should take place,

(e) the special enemies and dangers besetting
brood and adult oysters in the Pulicat parks, and the
best methods to ensure protection against such dangers,

(/) the conditions and localities in the Lake most
favourable to rapid growth and fattening,

(V) the manner in which the adult oysters may
best be prepared for market and conveyed in good
condition to their destination.

Finally special attention must be given to the devising
of means for carrying out all operations with a minimum
of expense in order that the price at which the oysters
reach the consumers shall be low enough to create a
large demand and yet yield a margin of profit to the
culturist sufficiently large to induce some of the people
of the district to enter upon oyster culture upon similar
lines. In this connection I trust that preference may be
given to small men rather than to the capitalist ; this
is the principle adopted by the French Government in
its administration of the oyster parks of Arcachon, and,
as I have shown, it has resulted in the creation of
thousands of small holdings worked in large part by the
families of renters. The majority of the men are
proprietors and not day-labourers as are English oyster-
fishers and the result is that Arcachon oystermen are both
better circumstanced and of greater independence and
enterprise than their English brethren who have usually
no special interest in their work save the wage they earn.
It will however be time enough to consider the
conditions of rental and the safeguards to be imposed
against the monopolist after experiments shall have
demonstrated oyster culture to be economically successful
in this country. I foresee difficulties but I do not believe
them to be insurmountable.

Tuticorin, JAMES HORNELL,

j J st January igio. Marine A-ssL, Fishery Bureau,

MBL/WHOI LIBRARY

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