77 



French brood do not realize nearly such high prices as 

 do real natives. After three years' sojourn in English 

 waters their flavour is almost as good as that of a true 

 native, but the little tell-tale cement mark remaining from 

 the time they were detached from the collectors reveals 

 their foreign birth and the astute middleman, who does 

 not, I fear, disdain to sell them to the public as natives, 

 demands and receives a heavy reduction from " native" 

 prices when purchasing any of this class of oyster. 



Cultivation in Holland is based upon the French 

 system as practised at Arcachon. To meet local condi- 

 tions a number of modifications have been introduced, 

 the most important being that the collector tiles are not 

 stacked in ruches but are piled loose in low wall-like rows 

 parallel with the shore at low tide level. Usually there 

 are several ranks of these tiles ranged one behind the 

 other. The reason for this modification which conduces 

 greatly to simplicity and economy in working, is the 

 stiffer nature of the bottom on these Dutch collecting 

 orounds. To guard against frost, the tiles with their catch 

 of spat are transferred in autumn to pits above tide- 

 mark, where they remain till the spring when the brood- 

 oysters are detached from the tiles and placed in 

 ambulances. Early in the next autumn they are sown 

 on the deep-water section of the concessionaire's holding 1 

 where they remain for two or three years till they 

 become of marketable size and condition. 



Much of the prosperity of Dutch oyster farming is 

 due to the abundance of spat on their grounds, the 

 product of the immense breeding reserves which have 

 accumulated along the seaward base of the coast dykes in 

 consequence of an old regulation which prohibits dredg- 

 ing within 547 yards of these great embankments. 



Oyster culture in Italy antedates that in any other 

 country and the methods there pursued, in one instance 

 dating back to a successful Roman experiment made at 

 the beginning of the Christian era, inspired Coste with 

 the ideas from which gradually developed the present 

 great French industry. 



