22 



Free sale of a concession is nominally interdicted by 

 the law ; a concession of a portion of the public domain 

 may be resumed at any time by the State and no pre- 

 scriptive right can be claimed in it as it is inalienable by 

 the State. In practice, the local administration permits 

 a concessionaire to cede his park to another provided the 

 price paid comprises only the value of the cultural equip- 

 ment ///as - the value of the labour expended in improving 

 the ground and fitting it for the purposes of oyster 

 culture. As a matter of fact this rule is evaded and 

 might as well be abrogated ; it leads frequently to 

 duplicity — one price is named in the contract offered for 

 official approval, another, the real one, is arranged 

 privately between the parties ; all the law can do is to 

 render illegal any suit in the courts for payment of the 

 additional price stipulated for in the secret contract. 



In 1908 out of a total shore-dwelling population of 

 about 30,000 distributed in the towns and villages along 

 the margin of Arcachon basin, not less than one-third 

 (10,000 to 1 1,000) are more or less dependent on oyster 

 culture for their living. The greater number of the 

 fishermen own one or more oyster parks and are practi- 

 cally all enrolled for active service in the fleet if required, 

 i.e., are inscrits maritimes ; of these concessionaires 

 there were 1,123 in 1908, the remainder of lessees of all 

 classes numbering 562, a total of 1,685, wn0 owned 

 between them the 3,895 parks occupied in that year in 

 the Arcachon basin. The area covered by these 3,895 

 concessions aggregated 2,833 hectares representing an 

 average of 1*375 hectare or about 3 J acres each. From 

 this fact and from the status of the majority of the 

 holders, it is obvious that small holdings are the rule ; 

 indeed the capitalist concessionaire who exploits large 

 oyster parks entirely through hired labour is a rarity and 

 invariably belongs to the district. No outside capital 

 is present and the joint stock company is neither known 

 nor required. 



In Arcachon, as in France generally, oyster culture 

 is an industry of small holdings worked as far as possible 



