282 



Letter on Oyster Culture. 



By 

 By liord Moutagu of Beaulieu.'*' 



I HAVE tried breediag oysters in two enclosed ponds for over ten 

 years. I began my experiments in 1878. These ponds are situated on 

 the banks of the Beaulieu Eiver, about three miles from the estuary. 

 They were excavated from the mud-bank, and banked off from 

 the river ; the bottom was well chalked, and afterwards well coated 

 with gravel. They are about half an acre each, and are divided by 

 an embankment. There are three sluices communicating with the 

 river from the ponds, and two between the two ponds. The situation 

 of the ponds is very sheltered, being in the west bank of the river, 

 with a wood on the west side, and the woods on the east side of the 

 river also sheltering them. The water of the river at the spot is 

 brackish to a certain extent, and decidedly so when there is much 

 rain. At spring tides it is nearly as salt as the sea, but there is always 

 a considerable mixture of fresh in the river. I have only once suc- 

 ceeded in obtaining any large fall of spat, and that was in the first year 

 the ponds were made, 1878. That year there was a very early fall 

 of spat, middle of June, and the tiles were fairly smothered with it. 

 Since then thei'e has been occasionally a little fall of spat, but nothing 

 at all satisfactory. 



I have used all kinds of collectors — tiles, brushwood, hurdles, 

 shells. When spat is really mature it will adhere to anything. The 

 tiles I have always coated with a mixture of lime and sand, so that 

 it should not get too hard and adhere too strongly to the tiles, as if 

 so it is impossible to remove the young oysters without breaking 

 their shell, when they die. The labour of removing is great, and the 

 expense also, and it is imperative to put these young oysters into 

 boxes or ambulances, and to remove them to ponds on the sea fore- 

 shore. The best, cheapest, and most effective collectors are small 

 shells, and oyster culch, especially if they can be put on fine wire 

 netting, a little above the bottom of the pond. I have tried to 

 collect spat on artificial tile collectors in the river, but have not 



* Lord Montagu has kindly allowed me to publish this letter, which was written in 

 answer to some questions of mine as to his experiences in oyster culture. — Ed. 



