6 9 



available and all the labour has to be hired expendi- 

 ture is considerably increased and profits decrease 

 correspondingly. Everything taken into account the 

 working expenses of an ordinarily well cultivated park 

 range anywhere from Rs. 1,100 to Rs. 1,700 per acre; 

 under what may be termed high-culture, these figures 

 must be considerably increased. 



To arrive at an estimation of the produce of a park 

 moderately well situated is particularly difficult ; the 

 ordinary parker keeps no books and can furnish no 

 profit and loss accounts and without records extending 

 over a considerable number of years we can obtain no 

 really reliable estimate of average profits. 



To attempt an approximation, we may take it that 

 the 8,000 collector tiles pertaining to a park of one 

 hectare in area obtain a spat fall of 2 J millions of young. 

 Sediment, inclement weather and numerous enemies 

 thin the ranks of these brood oysters very considerably 

 especially while they remain attached to the tiles, and the 

 parker does fairly well if he rears one-third, say 800,000, 

 to the saleable age of 18 months when the oyster should 

 be 5 centimetres in diameter. The eventual amount of 

 profit now depends upon the state of the market ; 

 according as the price may be from Rs. 6 to Rs. 9 per 

 1,000, the produce will realize a total of from Rs. 4,800 to 

 Rs. 7,200 per hectare or roughly Rs. 2,000 to Rs. 3,000 

 per acre. The annual expenses of this park we had 

 before estimated at from Rs. 1,100 to Rs. 1,700 per acre, 

 giving a net profit of from Rs, 900 to Rs. 1,300 per 

 acre. Unfortunately for the majority of the oyster 

 culturists of Arcachon the bulk of the parks are of 

 inferior situation and being handicapped by nature and 

 the limitation of their owners' capital the profits they 

 yield their lessees are very much smaller than in the 

 estimation above given — in a word the profits of an 

 Arcachon oyster culturist may range anywhere from 

 Rs. 200 to Rs. 2,000 per acre according to situation. 



These figures are liable to lead to false and exago'e- 

 rated conceptions of the prosperity of the parkers unless 



