OYSTER CULTURE IN ENGLAND. 441 



* 



acres partially brought under cultivation, at an expenditure 

 averaging, since the commencement of the work, about 

 2,-joo per annum. One considerable item of annual ex- 

 penditure is the cost of " cultch," of which 18,000 bushels, 

 principally oyster shells, and 1,200 bushels of cockle shells, 

 were laid down on the company's grounds in the twelve 

 months ending June last. The cockle shell cultch, which 

 is naturally exceedingly light, is laid down as a sort of 

 finish over the heavier shells just when the spat is an- 

 ticipated. 



In common with all the fisheries in the Burnham and 

 Roach and Crouch rivers, the fishery shows a very heavy 

 crop of spat, as many as 20, 40, and even 70 or 80 on a 

 single shell not being at all uncommon. Out of 30 shells 

 which I picked at random from the contents of one 

 dredge, 29 had more or less spat on them, the largest num- 

 ber which I counted upon one shell being 52. I send 

 herewith a few specimen shells, taken from this and the 

 Peglesham fishery, showing the spat as it appears on the 

 cultch. 



In connection with this subject it is a circumstance 

 worthy of remark, as bearing on the question of oyster 

 fishery decline and cultivation, that these rivers the 

 Roach, the Crouch, and the Burnham river, where, as 

 stated, I found everywhere evidence of an abundant fall of 

 spat are almost entirely cultivated as private fisheries, and 

 are throughout well stocked with parent oysters ; whilst 

 on the neighbouring formerly celebrated breeding beds of 

 the Blackwater, which is almost wholly an open public 

 river, and reduced to the verge of extinction by over- 

 dredging, there is hardly any spat whatever. 



