[9] OYSTER-CULTURE AT THE LONDON EXHIBITION. 921 



get a tborongli knowledge of the Dutch oyster iudiistry. The three 

 last-meiitioned places are villages in South Bevelaud, aud have derived 

 all their importance from the flourishing oyster industry, while the 

 former two are old towns. The Beveland villages were formerly of no 

 importance whatever, while now new and beautiful buildings are ris- 

 ing- every year. Each house has its garden in front, and from poor 

 fishermeu people have become well-to-do house-owners. This is princi- 

 pally caused by the oyster industry, which furnishes regular and re- 

 munerative work to all members of the family. 



All that the Government has to do with this industry is to appoint 

 and maintain a superintendent, with a suitable staff of assistants and 

 a, number of vessels, enabling him to collect the rent and attend to sim- 

 ilar duties. This superintendent has also to supervise the other fish- 

 eries (such as the mussel, anchovy, and eel fisheries) in the Schelde and 

 the other streams iu the province of Zealand for w^hich some rent is 

 paid. On the area rented by him the renter can make whatever ar- 

 rangements he pleases. As a matter of fact, all arrange their fisheries 

 iu the same manner, that is to say, in the manner which has been found 

 to be the most practical and remunerative, and which I will now briefly 

 describe. 



It is well known that the tide rises and falls several feet on the coast 

 of the Netherlands, so that large portions of the Schelde basin are 

 sometimes under water and sometimes dry. One would exi)ecc that a 

 large quantity of young oysters would be carried out to sea by the 

 current, but it has been proved by experience that the young oysters 

 which are carried out by the tide are again brought back to the basiu 

 six hours later when the tide comes in. Each lot is marked by piles. 

 Shallow lots are used for gathering young oysters and deep lots for 

 fattening and raising oysters. Oysterculturists, therefore, generally 

 rent several lots, some deep and some shallow. Along the dikes which 

 protect the coast of the Netherlands there are oyster pares, some dug- 

 out aud others surrounded with dikes aud fascines. These pares can be 

 laid dry, and are used for storing the collectors full of young oysters 

 during- winter, so as to i>rotect them against ice and frost, and for stor- 

 ing the so-called " hospitals," in which the young oysters are kept until 

 they are large enough to be planted on the beds. They are also used 

 as storehouses for those oysters which are kept for sale. Of these 

 pares there are two kinds, completely protected ones, and incompletely 

 protected ones. In the former the sea never goes over the dike, but 

 the necessary water is taken in through a sluice, while iu the latter 

 the dikes are so low that at high water the sea goes over them, the 

 daily supply of water being thus furnished without the aid of sluices. 

 The bottom and the lower part of thesides are generally of brick-work, 

 and each pare is generally divided into several parts by brick partitions 

 which also sor^'i^ as rests for the boards which bear the " hospitals." 

 These pares are often of considerable extent ; generally, however, their 



