OYSTER CULTURE IN ENGLAND. 361 



and the industry carried on in this space of ground involves 

 the annual earning and expenditure of a very large sum of 

 money. Over 3000 people are employed in the various 

 industries connected with the fishery, who earn capital 

 wages all the year round the sum paid for labour by the 

 different companies being set down at over ^"160,000 per 

 annum ; and in addition to this expenditure for wages, 

 there is likewise a large sum of money annually expended 

 for the repairing and purchasing of boats, sails, dredges, 

 and other implements used in oyster-fishing. 



At Whitstable the course of work is as follows : The 

 business of the company is to feed oysters for the London 

 and other markets : for this purpose they buy brood or 

 spat, and lay it down in their beds to grow, When the 

 company's own oysters produce a spat that is, when the 

 spawn or ' floatsome ' as the dredgers call it, emitted from 

 their own beds falls upon their own ground it is of great 

 benefit to them, as it saves purchases of brood to the ex- 

 tent of what has fallen ; but this falling of the spat is in a 

 great degree accidental, for no rule can be laid down as to 

 when the oysters spawn or where the spat may be carried 

 to. No artificial contrivances of the kind known in France 

 have yet been used in Whitstable for the saving of the 

 spawn. Very large sums have been paid in some years by 

 the Whitstable company for brood with which to stock 

 their grounds, great quantities being collected from the 

 Essex side, there being a number of people who derive a 

 comfortable income from collecting oyster brood on the 

 public foreshores, and disposing of it to persons who have 

 private nurseries, or oyster-layings as these are locally 

 called. 



The grounds of Pont are particularly fruitful in spat, 

 and yield large quantities to* all that require it. Pont is an 



