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prosperous holders selling- their rights and their stock 

 for what they would fetch in order to buy motor boats 

 and gear to engage in the then rapidly developing and 

 better paying sardine fishery. The number of holdings 

 still further decreased in 1907, 3,895 only being registered, 

 and in this year we find also a fall in the area culti- 

 vated — the total surface under culture being under 3,000 

 hectares for the first time since 1885. The precise area 

 occupied wai 2,833 hectares. Shrinkage in the area 

 cultivated still continues, and I understand that at the 

 end of 1908 less than 3,000 parks covering a superficies 

 of not more than 2,500 hectares were in exploitation. 



Three principal causes account for the decreased 

 profits of the Arcachon oyster culturist. They are over- 

 production, lack of co-operation and organization among 

 the producers, and displacement of the indigenous oyster 

 by the cheaper and hardier Portuguese species. 



The first and the last of these adverse factors are 

 correlated in large measure, for, were it not for the 

 steadily increasing competition of the Portuguese, the 

 Arcachon native would be readily saleable still. As it is, 

 the French public has learned to appreciate the good 

 value obtained when it purchases the Portuguese ; the 

 oyster parkers of the famous fattening centres of Oleron 

 and Marennes have realized that the cheapness of the 

 newcomer has created an oyster-consuming clientele 

 among classes who could not afford this luxury so long 

 as the higher priced indigenous oyster held the field 

 alone, and have adapted their business accordingly. 

 They have arranged their operations so that they can 

 cater alike for the wealthy and the comparatively poor ; 

 for the one they provide the expensive luscious green 

 Marennes native, for the other the large and succulent 

 Portuguese, frequently combining the culture of both 

 and maintaining thereby a large portion of the prosperity 

 of pre-Portuguese days. Not so the Arcachon culturists ; 

 they boycotted the Portuguese as long as they could and 

 they refused to give its production any attention till they 

 found the sale of their wares falling off before the steady 



