OYSTER CULTURE IN ENGLAND. 359 



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deep water, the oysters do not fatten or grow rapidly 

 enough for profit. In dredging, the whole of the oysters, 

 as they are hauled on board, should be carefully examined 

 and picked ; all below a certain size ought to be returned 

 to the water till their beards have grown large enough. 

 In winter, if the beds be in shallow water, the tender brood 

 must be placed in a pit for protection from the frost ; 

 which of course takes up a great deal of time. Dead 

 oysters ought to be carefully removed from the beds. 

 The proprietors of private Mayings' are generally careful 

 on this point, and put themselves to great trouble every 

 spring to lift or overhaul all their. stock in order to remove 

 the dead or diseased. Mussels must be carefully rooted 

 out from the beds ; otherwise they would in a short time 

 render them valueless. 



The layings, for example, of Mr. David Plunkett, in 

 Killery Bay, for which he had a license from the Irish 

 Board of Fisheries, were overrun by mussels, and so ren- 

 dered almost valueless. 



The weeding and tending of an oyster-bed requires, 

 therefore, much labour, and involves either a partnership 

 of several people which is usual enough, as at Whitstable 

 or at least the employment of several dredgermen and 

 labourers. But, for all that, an oyster-farm may be made 

 a most lucrative concern. 



As a guide to the working of a very large oyster-farm 

 say a concern of ^70,000 a year or thereabout I shall 

 give immediately some data of the Whitstable Free Dred- 

 gers' Company ; but I wish first to say that the organiza- 

 tion which is constantly at work for supplying the great 

 metropolis with oysters is more perfect than can be said of 

 any other branch of the fish trade. 



