OYSTER CULTURE IN ENGLAND. 445 



SWANSEA FISHERY ORDER. 

 20, Onslow Gardens, ^bth December, 1876. 



Sir, I have the honour to inform you that, in accord- 

 ance with your instructions, dated the i8th November, I 

 visited Swansea on the i5th and i6th instant, in order to 

 inspect the oyster and mussel fishery over which the Cor- 

 poration of that town possesses regulating powers under 

 " The Swansea Fishery Order, 1871." I was unfortunately 

 prevented by boisterous weather from dredging over the 

 ground, but I obtained sufficient information from the 

 town clerk of the borough, from the fishery inspector, and 

 from several dredgermen, to justify me in forming an 

 opinion upon the state of the fishery, and upon the man- 

 'ner in which the provisions of the Order have been carried 

 out. 



I regret to have to report that the diminution in the 

 produce of the oyster fishery, which gradually took place 

 during the twelve years preceding the grant of the Order, 

 has not been arrested under the regulating powers con- 

 ferred by it. During the inquiry in 1870, it was stated that 

 the 1 80 boats then engaged in dredging could each take 

 from 700 to 800 oysters per day. In 1875-6, no boats 

 could only take about 350 each in December, and not more 

 than 150 each in the end of February. According to 

 these figures the yield of oysters would seem to have dim- 

 inished at least 75 per cent, in six years ; and startling as 

 this decrease is, the fact of its occurrence is confirmed by 

 the returns sent in April last by the Corporation of Swan- 

 sea to the Board of Trade. These show that while the 

 gross take of oysters amounted to 9,050,000 in 1873, it sank 

 to 6,600,000 in 1874, and to 3,810,000 in 1875. As brood 



