Oyster Culture in Europe and Japan 71 



country. Among other things, the demand for oysters 

 increased enormously. This soon resulted in the de- 

 struction of natural oyster beds, and the development of 

 artificial means of supplying the market. 



In the early part of the nineteenth century, natural 

 oyster beds were numerous on certain parts of the 

 French and English coasts. The history of their de- 

 struction is valuable, because it shows how entirely mis- 

 leading statistics may become in matters of this kind. 

 In Cancale Bay, on the northern coast of France, com- 

 paratively few oysters were taken during the last of the 

 Napoleonic wars, and the beds, having been undisturbed, 

 had become very extensive. In 18 17 dredging began 

 again without interruption from English war vessels, 

 and during that year, great numbers of oysters were 

 marketed from these beds. Year after year they in- 

 creased. Every one connected with the industry 

 came to regard the natural beds as inexhaustible. A dec- 

 ade passed, then a second and a third, and each year the 

 supply was greater than the last, until, in 1843, seventy 

 million oysters were marketed. If, during that time, any 

 warning voice had been raised, it certainly would not 

 have been heard. If any one had been able to attract at- 

 tention by his statement that the beds were becoming ex- 

 hausted, he would have been effectually silenced by the 

 statistics. It would have been useless to show that each 

 year the number of fishermen was greater, and that the 

 time and labor required in obtaining a boat-load was 

 rapidly lengthening. The significant thing to consumers 

 would have been that oysters in the market were increas- 

 ing in numbers. 



This has been the experience in our own country, where 

 the people may control such conditions more directly, 



