364 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



whose turn it is for duty, and who at a given signal start 

 to do their portion of the ' stint.' 



As to this working of the oyster beds, an eminent 

 authority has said it is utterly useless to enclose a piece of 

 ground and simply plant it ; it is utterly useless to throw a 

 lot of oysters down amongst every state of filth. You must 

 keep constantly dredging, not only the bed itself, but the 

 public beds outside, so as to keep the bottom fit for the 

 reception and growth of the young oysters, and free of its 

 multitudinous and natural enemies. 



It may as well be explained here also, that what are 

 called native beds are all cultivated beds ; the natural beds 

 are uncultivated, and are generally public and free to all 

 comers. The Colne beds, however, are an exception ; 

 they are natural beds, but are held by the city of Colchester 

 as property. Whenever a new bed is discovered anywhere 

 nowadays, the run upon it is so great that it is at once 

 despoiled of its shelly treasures ; and the native beds 

 would soon become exhausted if they were not systemati- 

 cally conducted on sound commercial principles, and regu- 

 larly replenished with brood." (c) 



In an interesting article in the London Daily Tele- 

 graph (Aug. 3ist, 1885), headed 



" WHITSTABLE AND HER NATIVES," 



the writer says : " French oysters reared at 



Whitstable are too often sold as real Whitstable natives. 

 The effect is mischievous in several ways. It vitiates taste, 

 and confirms the unwary purchaser in an ignorance preju- 

 dicial to legitimate interests. Thus, let us say you have 

 gone on for a little time ordering and paying for Whitstable 

 natives, which are not natives at all ; and suddenly, having 



(c) " The Harvest of the Sea," pp. 254-8. 



