72 



demand of a large section of the public for Portuguese. 

 They are now falling into line with other French centres ; 

 in 1907, their sales of Portuguese oysters till then 

 negligible, suddenly rose to a value of 809,000 francs 

 (Rs. 4,85,400), and are now steadily rising annually. 

 The bulk of the parkers, however, still limit their efforts 

 to the culture of the native oyster and as the competition 

 of the Portuguese renders their oysters both low priced 

 and slow of sale, stock has accumulated to such a oreat 

 extent — about 1,000,000,000 in 1907 — as to entail over- 

 crowding with its train of baneful consequences, growth 

 stuntino- and disease. What intensifies the trouble, if 

 indeed it is not largely accountable for it, is the restric- 

 tion upon liberty of sale imposed upon the local trade 

 years ago at the request of the culturists themselves, 

 whereby no oysters may be despatched outside the basin 

 under 5 cms. diameter. Arcachon trade has never been 

 primarily one of sale to the general public ; it has been 

 largely directed to the supply of stock for fattening to 

 oyster centres which do not produce sufficient brood for 

 their rearing grounds and greening claires. These take 

 decreasing quantities year by year and the position is one 

 which the Arcachon parkers find difficult to adjust. 

 Arcachon on the whole, is not well adapted to fatten 

 large quantities of first class oysters. The Arcachon 

 oyster when mature has the reputation of being distinctly 

 second class and without the advantage of a fattening 

 sojourn on better situated grounds it is difficult of sale in 

 competition with the Portuguese, its size being distinctly 

 inferior and its superiority in flavour a matter of small 

 moment with those who have become accustomed to the 

 Portuguese ; for cooking purposes the latter is the more 

 useful. 



Distinct relief to the Arcachon trade would probably 

 be felt if the producers were at liberty to sell their brood 

 at any age they please ; they would then find an outlet 

 with an entirely different class of buyers to those who 

 take the 5 centimetre size, for example, the English trade, 

 which not infrequently buys very young brood in great 



