496 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



" floatsome," as the dredgers call the spawn, and to secure 

 that should be one of the first objects of the oyster-farmer. 



We glean from these proceedings of the French pisci- 

 culturists the most valuable lessons, for the improvement 

 and conduct of our British oyster-pares. If, as seems to be 

 pretty certain, each matured oyster yields about two mil- 

 lions of young per annum, and if the greater proportion of 

 these can be saved by being afforded a permanent resting- 

 place, it is clear that, by laying down a few thousand 

 breeders, we may, in the course of a year or two, have, at 

 any place we wish, a large and reproductive oyster-farm. 

 With reference to the question of growth, M. Coste tells us 

 that stakes which had been fixed for a period of thirty 

 months, in the lake of Fusaro, were quite loaded with 

 oysters when they came to be removed. These were found 

 to embrace a growth of three seasons. Those of the first 

 year's spawning were ready for the market ; the second 

 year's brood were a good deal smaller ; whilst the remain- 

 der were not larger than a lentil. To attain miraculous 

 crops similar to those once achieved in the Bay of St. 

 Brieuc, or at the He de Re, little more is required than to 

 lay down the spawn in a nice rocky bay, or in a place paved 

 for the purpose, and having as little mud about it as pos- 

 sible. A place having a good stream of water flowing into 

 it is the most desirable, so that the flock may procure food 

 of a varied and nutritious kind. 



A couple of hundred stakes driven into the soft places 

 of the shore, between high and low water mark, and these 

 well supplied with branches held together by galvanised 

 iron wire (common rope might soon become rotten), 

 would, in conjunction with the rocky ground, afford capital 

 holding-on places, so that any quantity of spawn might, in 

 time, be developed into fine " natives." There are hundreds 



