CHAPTER XXIII. 



OYSTER CULTURE IN FRANCE. 



STATE OF OYSTER CULTURE IN 1859 SAD RESULTS OF OVER- 

 DREDGINGRESOLVE OF THE GOVERNMENT M. COSTE'S SUC- 

 CESS BCEUF'S SUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENTS THE SPAWNING OF 

 OYSTERS GROWTH WHEN DO OYSTERS BECOME REPRODUC- 

 TIVE FOR DREDGING ? LAKE FUSARO FASCINES ST. BRIEUC 

 -ROCHELLE ILE DE RE STATISTICS WISE POLICY OF THE 

 GOVERNMENT ECONOMY OF THE PARCS GREENING OYSTERS 

 SPAT COLLECTORS COST OF CONSTRUCTING A BED DR. 

 KEMMERER'S SYSTEM "GUARDIANS" PRESENT-TIME CUL- 

 TURETHE NEW DECREE. 



IT is hardly an exaggeration to say that about forty years 

 ago there was scarcely an oyster of native growth in 

 France ; the beds had become so exhausted from over- 

 dredging as to be unproductive, and the people were con- 

 sequently in despair at the loss of this favourite adjunct of 

 their banquets, and had to resort to other countries for 

 such small supplies as they could obtain. 



As an illustration of the over-dredging that had pre- 

 vailed, it may be stated that oyster farms, which formerly 

 employed fourteen hundred men, with two hundred boats, 

 and yielded an annual revenue of 400,000 francs, had 

 become so reduced as to require only one hundred men 

 and twenty boats. Places where at one time there had 



