35 
larger give the most spat. If on the other hand all the oysters down to 2 inches 
m length were allowed to be taken, certainly the stock would soon be destroyed, 
but there would be all thé same many millions to be taken in the year for a number 
of years, and of this there can be absolutely no question. The standard has as 
mentioned certainly been retained in recent years to make sure of sufficient spaw- 
ning oysters, whereas the standard under our conditions need only be fixed in 
order to prevent the unsaleable oysters from being brought on land or destroyed. 
It is in fact the question between the »reproduction theory« and »growth theory«, the 
latter of which has now triumphed for example in the matter of the plaice, which 
now concerns the oyster. 
The lessees in the Lim Fjord are on the other hand interested in taking 
as large oysters as possible, especially as the State is paid for each single oyster, 
perhaps also because the fishermen receive payment from the lessees per 1000; 
the large would naturally meet the higher tax per specimen better than the small; 
but it is for the lessees to arrange this matter. The State on the other hand should 
take care that the stock is so exploited that it gives a large harvest each year and 
not as at present a small harvest with large prices. To let the oysters lie and 
die of old age helps neither the State nor the public, nor the large fishing popu- 
lation which has almost nothing to do with the fishery of these shell fish. 
In 1886 the State stopped the oyster fishery because it could not yield 
each day 1000 oysters over 3 inches per boat with 4 dredges under favourable 
conditions; but what are favourable conditions? An oyster bank may be covered 
with sea-weed or fine mud for some time, so that no dredging can be done; a 
storm may then change the whole, so that many oysters can be dredged on the 
same bank the day after. Why stop just at 1000 oysters of 3 inches per day? 
From olden times 2'/, inches was the standard for oysters on the Schleswig and 
»fladstrand« banks; for some reason or another this was raised to 3 inches in the 
Lim Fjord in 1852 and for some later contracts; but in 1860 probably on the 
recommendation of Eschricht the Government reduced it to 2!/, inches. But this 
standard was not used by the lessees, they retained the old 3 to 3!/, imches. It 
was thus the contractors who endeavoured to keep up the standard, and in the 
later years since 1870 Collin has also kept this high standard. Any real reason 
why just 27/, or 3 or 31/, inches should be chosen, I have never been able to 
find, and it is indeed a very essential point, as just at this size we are near 
to the limit which many oysters cannot reach. 
In his Report of 1852 Krøyer states that the Lim Fjord oysters are not 
so good to eat as the »fladstrand«; they are »insipid and sweet to the taste« the 
consumers complained, and Eschricht in 1860 says that the oysters from the Lim 
Fjord are of a »sweet insipid taste«, but he adds (p. 69), that he knew quite well 
that oysters taste differently at different seasons and especially are not good in 
summer (August); it was just in this month that both he and Krøyer tasted them. 
But Eschricht also judges from the circumstance, that the Lim Fjord oysters are 
so flat in the shell and therefore that they must be thin, and states that only the 
large oysters come into trade from the Lim Fjord, because the dealers »wished to 
conceal the slight thickness and fat by the larger circumference«. Eschricht saw 
very well that the trade preferred to deal with oysters which were »far over 
