75 



V.- PRINCIPAL CHARACTERISTICS OF 



OTHER EUROPEAN SYSTEMS OF 



OYSTER CULTIVATION. 



In concluding this short review of the Arcachon 

 oyster culture industry as it presented itself to my eyes 

 in the summer of last year, it will be of some value if I 

 note briefly the outstanding features of difference met 

 with in the systems practised elsewhere in Europe. 



The scale of development characterising oyster farm- 

 ing in those European countries where the industry in 

 some form or other is worked on any important scale 

 runs as follows in order of specialization, viz., Germany, 

 Portugal, Spain and Belgium, England, Italy, Holland, 

 France. 



Germany is the lowest in the scale of oyster-farming 

 countries and indeed nothing deserving the name of 

 cultivation exists there, the severity of the German winter 

 rendering foreshore operations a matter of too great 

 expense, difficulty and risk. Under the circumstances 

 probably the wisest course has been followed, the exten- 

 sive natural oyster beds which cover a great extent of the 

 bottom of the shallow Wattenmeer, lying between the 

 west coast of Schleswig-Holstein and the north Frisian 

 Islands, being leased out by the Government to a single 

 firm. Great care is taken by the Fishery Inspectors to 

 prevent more oysters being removed from the beds than 

 are replaced annually by new growth. These beds are 

 an instance of the beneficent results which accrue when 

 the intelligent regulation and production of a natural 

 fishery be taken in hand prior to excessive depletion. 

 It was the want of such prevision as the Germans have 

 shown, which has caused the ruin of almost all the 

 English and French natural beds and, nearer home, the 

 local beds in the Sind creeks. 



In Portugal the reproduction of the natural beds of 

 the Portuguese oyster (O. angnlatct) is so enormous that 

 no other efforts are required to stock the foreshore laying 

 grounds, than the collection of young brood from the 



