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in shallow, safe waters, and its returns calculable, while 

 the fresh products will be in considerable local demand 

 at high prices, and any surplus can either be sent to 

 Calcutta, etc., in ice after being shelled as in America, 

 or converted into goods (in cans, extracts, etc.) in general 

 demand. 



6. Mr. Hornell considers, and I concur, that the East 

 Coast of this Presidency is better suited than the West 

 Coast for oyster culture, since, except where there is 

 very free communication with the sea, as at Cochin, the 

 West Coast backwaters are, for several months, so 

 diluted with floods of fresh water that no oyster could 

 live in them ; these conditions do not obtain in our East 

 Coast backwaters. Moreover oysters are only found in 

 patches in the West Coast estuaries, and hardly at all in 

 the open sea, whereas the margins of the East Coast are 

 frequently fertile in oysters attached to the mangroves 

 and rocks. As at present advised, we consider the 

 Pulicat Lake or backwater to be the most suitable place 

 for beginning operations ; the backwater is convenient 

 both in position and character, its bar is generally open 

 to the sea. and very good oysters are found there, though 

 only in patches ; these can be utilised as breeders (i) by 

 fencing in about three acres — in two plots — of the lake 

 as culture beds (parks) and preparing them for cultural 

 operations, (2) by carrying out in these plots the cultural 

 operations found desirable, these being based in the 

 first instance on Arcachon methods, (3) by the issue 

 of Government Orders prohibiting the taking of oysters 

 from the scanty existing beds within the lake. 



7. The work will of course be experimental at first 

 since no such cultural attempt has ever been made in 

 India, and we shall have to ascertain not merely the best 

 form of spat collectors but the exact season or seasons 

 in which to put them in position, the enemies and dangers 

 to which the oysters will be exposed, the best localities 

 for further work, the ages at which, and the methods by 

 which, oysters will give the best commercial return, 

 and the best means for the disposal of our crops ; two 

 or three years should enable us to answer the above 

 questions. 



8. Mr. Hornell has given in the second of his papers 

 full details of the experiments proposed and of their cost 

 which, annually, will be very small ; the capital cost of 



