OYSTER CULTURE IN ENGLAND. 341 



that are to be afterwards preserved for growth and fattened 

 for the market on the same ground, there is necessarily a 

 large outlay of capital made in the first instance, and three 

 or four years must then elapse presuming that a rise of 

 spat has been obtained from the first batch of oysters laid 

 down in the prepared beds before any return can be ob- 

 tained from this original expenditure. With this impor- 

 tant fact ever present for the consideration of the oyster 

 producer, it is not surprising that a far greater amount of 

 attention has been paid by them to the growth and fatten- 

 ing of oysters purchased from coast dredgers, than to the 

 raising of spat from old fish. The acknowledged result of 

 this course has, however, been to denude natural breeding 

 grounds on both coasts of fish, old and young, and it has 

 only been the almost insurmountable difficulty met with for 

 several years now in procuring oysters of any kind suitable 

 for the fattening beds, that has turned the attention of 

 people in the direction of breeding as well as fattening 

 oysters for the table. 



Mr. Lowe, one of the secretaries of the Acclimatiza- 

 tion Society, has stated that, in answer to his inquiries 

 concerning the French natural oyster beds, he was in- 

 formed that the number of oysters dredged from the Can- 

 cale deep sea beds in 1863 was under four millions, while 

 twelve years previously the take averaged sixty millions. 

 He also refers to the well-known fact of the discovery of a 

 bed of oysters lying off in the Channel between the two 

 coasts, which was three miles in length. In a very short 

 time the oyster dredgers cleared the bank, and destroyed 

 all life for reproduction by their rapacity. 



Mr. Ffennel, Inspector of Fisheries, reported a few 

 years since that on one part of the Irish coast one bed of 

 oysters gave employment to 2000 fishermen, but so reck- 



