19 



afford to pay the prices asked for the indigenous product 

 welcomed the Portuguese for its low price. Its mediocre 

 flavour they willingly overlooked. 



For a long time the oyster farmers of Arcachon, 

 specialists in the culture of the home species, would have 

 nothing to do with the Portuguese. They feared it, and 

 made every endeavour to exclude it from the parks. Of 

 late years, the increase of consumption has consisted 

 almost entirely of the cheaper qualities ; the cheap and 

 tasty Portuguese was always sure of a ready sale, 

 whereas the demand for the higher priced native was 

 frequently so slow that the Arcachon oyster farmers 

 found their stocks accumulating. In the end and against 

 their will they had to oo with the current and about 

 1901 began to cultivate the foreign species. In 1903 the 

 first lots were put on the market, totally 2,740,000 of a 

 value of 25,200 francs for the year. In 1906, the quantity 

 sold was still small, only some 5^ millions, but the next 

 year, 1907, a sudden increase took place, no less than 

 95,760,000 being sold, a quantity exceeding one-fourth of 

 the total number of natives sold in the same year, the 

 value being 809,335 francs or nearly one-third of the 

 total value of the sales of native oysters in the same 

 period.* 



IV.— PRESENT METHODS AND 

 CONDITIONS. 



(1) Tenure under which ovster farms are held ; 



number and status of those engaged 



in the industry. 



As is customary in civilized countries the law in 

 France recognizes most clearly the exclusive right of the 

 State to all land lying between tide-marks ; in addition 



* This would seem to exhibit the Portuguese as being sold ?.t a higher price 

 individually than the natives, a seeming contradiction of previous statements ; the 

 discrepancy is due to the fact that a great part of Arcachon natives are sold 

 young for fattening whereas the Portuguese visually are sold only when of full 

 edible size. 



