OYSTER CULTURE IN ENGLAND. 407 



from the immigrants of past years, and to collect and 

 transfer to the protected part the brood which these may 

 produce. 



The concentration of a considerable number of oysters 

 within a small space in the first instance, and the subse- 

 quent occupation of an area proportioned to the success 

 obtained, is more likely to offer good results than the more 

 common practice of diffusing oysters over an amount of 

 ground which it is comparatively difficult to keep in the 

 highest condition, and which, perhaps, the number of 

 oysters put upon it is insufficient to hold against the 

 minimum quantity of enemies present in every place. It 

 appears to me, therefore, that the company, under its new 

 management, has been well advised in adopting the 

 method of cultivation with which it has begun, and that if 

 it continues to act with the vigour and caution which now 

 seem to characterise it, there is every reason to expect 

 that it will arrive at permanent success. 



The oysters which have been laid down this year are 

 all French. It is, perhaps, worth noting that those from 

 Calvados have not spatted at all, that those from Arcachon 

 have spatted sparingly, and that those from Brittany have 

 spatted freely. If, as is probable, the Breton oysters come 

 from Auray, they have been transferred to a climate and a 

 ground not very different to their own ; while the Arcachon 

 oysters have been exposed to a lower temperature, and 

 those from Calvados have been deposited in ground and 

 at a depth to which they are not accustomed. 



In touching upon the subject of spat, I may take the 

 opportunity to remark, that in the returns sent up last 

 spring to the Board of Trade from the various oyster 



