ii6 



and pamphlets, and by the school and apprentice 

 system. 



41. The methods above outlined are intended to 

 assist proo'ress without undue disturbance to existino- 

 classes and systems, to introduce progress gradually, to 

 evolve rather than to revolutionize, to work through 

 and develop existing agencies rather than introduce 

 outside enterprise. 



42. Culture. — No attempts at culture will at first be 

 made except in the direction of oysters and other shell 

 fish. Marine pisciculture can only be undertaken by 

 a highly developed department with a large organiza- 

 tion and with full scientific knowledge ; its results are of 

 doubtful utility and its methods expensive ; the system 

 belongs to a later — the conservational — staee of deve- 

 lopment ; hence it is passed over for the present WMth 

 the exception mentioned. Oyster culture, however, is 

 extremely easy and profitable and the results ascertain- 

 able ; it is carried on in shallow water by the simplest 

 of natural methods and is concerned only with immobile 

 subjects which can be easily protected and handled, 

 differing absolutely from the free swimming swarms of 

 cod, etc., which are the subjects of the usual marine 

 hatcheries and which are turned out in their most 

 helpless age simply to form, in most cases, ready food 

 for larger fish. The oyster remains where he is, his 

 enemies can, to a great extent, be kept away, and when 

 the harvest is ripe it can be reaped in full ; it is eminently 

 an industry suitable for the ordinary backwater fisher- 

 men when instructed. It is true that Indians do not 

 generally eat oysters so that there would be but a small 

 home market, but there is an absolutely unlimited 

 demand for dried oysters and shell fish in China to 

 which Japan sends large quantities, and there is an 

 assurance of easy and vast production by culture in our 

 backwaters and in parts of the coast such as the 

 mangrove areas of Guntur and Kistna ; the oysters of 

 Pulicat and Covelong are well known, and in the 

 backwaters of the West Coast from Ouilon to Hosdrug 

 they abound, together with vast numbers of other shell 

 fish; As. 4 per 100 is a fyncy price for excellent Ouilon 

 oysters ; the best in the country are said to come from 

 the coasts near Chinna Ganjam, Nizampatam, etc., in the 

 Guntur district. From the casual inspection hitherto 



