OYSTER CULTURE IN FRANCE. 487 



the value of upwards of ^~ 100,000, which in another year 

 or so will be doubled ! The reader is not, however, to 

 suppose but that much hard work had to be endured before 

 such a scene of industry could be thoroughly organized. 



When the great success of BceuPs experiments had 

 been proclaimed in the neighbourhood, a little army of 

 agricultural labourers came down from the interior of the 

 country and took possession of the shores, portions of which 

 were conceded to them by the French Government, at a 

 nominal rent of about a franc a week. The most arduous 

 duty of these men consisted in clearing off the mud which 

 lay on the shore in large quantities, and which (as I have 

 stated elsewhere) is fatal to the oyster in its early stages. 

 Next, the rocks had to be blasted in order to get stones for 

 the construction of the pare walls ; then these had to be 

 built ; foot-roads had also to be arranged for the conveni- 

 ence of the farmers, and carriage-ways had likewise to be 

 made through the different farms. Ditches had to be 

 contrived to carry off the mud, the pares had to be stocked 

 with breeding oysters, and to be kept carefully free from 

 the various kinds of sea-animals that prey upon the oyster, 

 and many other daily duties had to be performed that 

 demanded the minute attention of the owners. But all 

 obstacles were in time overcome, and some of the breeders 

 have been so very successful of late years as to be offered a 

 sum of ,100 for the brood attached to twelve of their 

 rows of stones, the cost of laying these down being about 

 200 francs. 



To construct an oyster-bed thirty yards square costs 

 about 12 of English money, and it has been calculated 

 that the return from some of the beds has been as high as 

 1000 per cent. ! The whole industry of the He is wonder- 

 ful, when it is considered that it was all organized in a 



