ARTIFICIAL OYSTER CULTIVATION. 1179 



autumn to Hayling Island and other places on the south 

 coast, where the climate is milder, to winter, as it has been 

 found by experiment that the French oysters are less hardy 

 than natives. Most merchants try to sell their stock before 

 the winter ; but where they are unable to do so, they are 

 obliged to take these precautions to preserve them. It is 

 as yet undecided whether French oysters are sufficiently 

 hardy to stand an average winter at Whitstable, Faversham, 

 &c. The loss from them is undoubtedly greater than from 

 natives, but the question is whether the cost of removal is 

 compensated for by preservation of life. It is a risk : in 

 such a winter as the last it would probably not be worth 

 while to move them, but in such a winter as that of 1 880-81 

 the saving would be enormous. It must be borne in mind 

 that after a hard winter the frost often breaks up with a 

 gale of wind, and the oysters, being then weakened by the 

 cold, either succumb to the sand, or get broken by being 

 knocked about by the ground swell. 



Another company of dredgermen which is self governed 

 is that of the Colne Fishery. It consisted in 1876 of about 

 400 members, and about 200 fishing and dredging smacks 

 were either hired or owned by the company. The fishery 

 is about six miles in length, and at the lower part two miles 

 in \\idth. The quantity of oysters obtained from the 

 company bears but a small proportion to the yield from 

 private layings in the Colne and Blackwater. There are 

 more than a hundred of these layings, some freehold, 

 others copyhold and held from the lords of the manors. 



The Colne company used to pay a higher rate of wages 

 than the private owners, on the principle of the larger the 

 fishery, the more it can afford to pay its workmen. 



All the Colne and Blackwater oyster grounds were 

 more or less successful in obtaining spat in 1881, the clean- 



