66 



of the parker's family may give results that barely suffice 

 for the scantiest of daily needs. 



Capital Expenditure. — Oyster culture at Arcachon 

 now counts so many years of development and expansion 

 behind it that no good virgin ground is now available for 

 new enterprise ; all suitable areas have long been taken 

 up and any one who wishes either to take up the business 

 of oyster culture or to extend his present holding can do 

 so only by buying up the interest of some other culturist. 



For the better class of parks the transfer price 

 varies between wide limits ; between 6,000 to 15,000 

 francs per hectare (Rs. 3,600 to Rs. 9,000 for slightly less 

 than 2\ acres) for fairly good average situations ; parks 

 of special excellence, particularly those where the growth 

 of oysters is specially rapid, are valued very much higher, 

 from 20,000 to 40,000 francs per hectare (Rs. 12,000 to 

 24,000 per 2J acres) being demanded by their lessees. 

 Indeed even higher values than these are sometimes 

 placed upon the best situated parks ; one prominent 

 parker personally informed me that he had refused to' 

 sell at the rate of 40,000 francs per hectare and that he 

 would not sell under 50,000 francs the hectare and even 

 at this enormous price, over Rs. 12,000 per acre, he would 

 be loth to part with any portion of his concession, so 

 large are the profits he nets from it. Legally a conces- 

 sionaire has no rioht to ask such larQe sums for the 

 transfer of the ground he has rented from the State. 

 The law requires that the transferee shall merely reim- 

 burse the holder for the actual cost of improvements 

 effected ; it does not recognize the right of the holder 

 to unearned increment, but this regulation through the 

 concurrence of buyer and seller is regularly evaded. 



On the transfer of a park in full working order and 

 of average value, costing anything from Rs. 1,500 to 

 Rs. 4,500 per acre, the new owner should find the 

 laying ground properly levelled, consolidated, and, when 

 in the form of a claire, surrounded by a low faggot bund ; 

 according to the situation of the park in the basin and 

 the species of oyster being reared, a certain area should 



