878 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



menced to calculate, according to the price which oysters had at that 

 time, how many millious of francs would be yielded by this harvest of 

 the sea. Capitalists went into partnership with fishermen and started 

 artificial oyster-beds; but the rich harvest of marketable oysters failed 

 everywhere, because the greater portion of the young oysters had been 

 destroyed by quicksand or clayey deposit, by want of food, or by enemies. 



At i^resent the catching and raising of young oysters is only success- 

 fully carried on in a few places on the French coast which are favorable 

 for this cultivation ; on a large scale in the bay of Arcachon, south of 

 Bordeaux. In this bay the young oysters produced by mother-oysters 

 on natural beds are caught on fagots, separated from these in October, 

 and then placed in boxes, and finally in artificial ponds. In these they 

 are protected against their enemies by wires or nets. Once or twice 

 every year they are placed in other clean ponds, and care is taken that 

 both during the coldest and the warmest season they are covered by at 

 least 20 centimeters of water. 



By this improved method 196,000,000 marketable oysters have, in 

 1875-'76, been raised in the bay of Arcachon, and the price of oysters 

 fell in consequence. While in 1873 a thousand oysters cost 43 francs, 

 they could be bought for 25 francs in 1876. Compared with the con- 

 siderable expense of starting and running the oyster establishments, 

 this price is so low that only those oyster-raisers made money who, as I 

 know from good authority, worked with their own hands and were as- 

 sisted by their families. 



Who would not like to see this improved method of raising oysters, 

 in spite of its expense, introduced on our coasts ? I will therefore en- 

 deavor to answer the question whether the essential conditions of its 

 success are found in the German seas. 



The saltuess of the water, the food, the currents, and the character 

 of the bottom would make our " Watten Sea " as suitable a place for 

 oyster cultivation as the bay of Arcachon ; but its tide and tempera- 

 ture are unfavorable. In the bay of Arcachon the usual difference be- 

 tween high and low water is 15 to 16 feet, and, during a storm, only 3 to 

 4 feet more. On our North Sea coasts the water can rise during a storm 

 twice as much and even more than at the common tide. The force of 

 the water is therefore much greater on our coasts than in the bay of Ar- 

 cachon. We would, therefore, have to give to our oyster-ponds a much 

 greater power of resistance. But, even if they could resist the strongest 

 floods, they could scarcely protect the oysters against the quicksands 

 and the clayey mud. An experiment made near Norderney, in 1809, has 

 proved this to be true. In the spring of that year a basin 10,000 feet 

 square was constructed on the landward coast of the island ; it was in- 

 closed by protecting walls and divided into two smaller basins. In the 

 beginning of June 20,000 full-grown oysters were placed in it, but ihts" 

 young oysters which had been looked for did not make their appearance'f 

 starfish and crabs attacked the oysters. In August storm-floods broke 



