I03 



of the 19th century owing to the unrestricted ravages 

 consequent upon an unlimited demand and the disuse of 

 the earlier regulation ; the genius of Coste and other 

 scientific and practical experimenters who were supported 

 or fostered by the resources of the State, found the 

 remedy in systematic oyster culture, with the result that 

 the Arcachon beds which in 1859 furnished only 700,000 

 oysters valued at 28,000 francs, supplied in 1907 no less 

 than 352^ millions valued at 2,659460 francs, a value 

 much below the real value since many millions are sold 

 immature — at two years of age — for being fattened else- 

 where. Besides this large output of native oysters 

 nearly 96 million Portuguese oysters were also grown 

 and sold. About 1,000 million oysters are under culture 

 at any one time on the 7,500 odd acres which are held 

 in about 3,000 holdings, the small holding being the one 

 especially fostered by Government as a provision for its 

 naval reserve. The figures of output of native oysters 

 show an annual outturn per acre of about 45,000 or 

 slightly over one per square foot ; there must be present 

 an average of about three oysters per foot or 135,000 per 

 acre, since the gross number any one time under cultiva- 

 tion is 1,000 million. Hence it will be seen that a great 

 source of wealth and industry was ruined by carelessness 

 and absence of regulation, but more than restored by 

 authority, science and industry working in combination ; 

 State regulation and State assistance in experiment have 

 re-created Arcachon. 



4. One immediate result of Mr. Hornell's enquiry is 

 the second paper for which we had laid the foundation 

 by the examination of the Pulicat Lake by Mr. Hornell 

 in 1908, as reported in the first paper in Departmental 

 Bulletin No. 4, and by the preliminary experiments in 

 oyster culture at Ennore recorded, for 1908, in the 

 second paper in the same bulletin, some remarkable 

 results of which are mentioned in paragraph 1 7 of my 

 annual report for 1908-09 read in G.O. No. 12 15, 

 Revenue, dated 4th May 1909. These Ennore experi- 

 ments were repeated on the same ground in the autumn 

 of 1909 with still more remarkable results; briefly, it 

 may be here stated that on tile collectors deposited in 

 the backwater between 19th September and 12th Octo- 

 ber, very many young oysters were found on the 19th 

 November, the sizes of which varied from very smallto 



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