[19] THE OYSTER AND OYSTER-CULTURE. ZO 
artificially grown oysters, and in 1875~76 about 196,000,000. This im- 
portant yield of the last year, as compared with the poor returns of 
former years, may be accounted for principally through two causes: 
First. The natural oyster-beds in the Bay of Arcachon had had com- 
plete rest for the entire two years immediately preceding these rich har- 
vests. During the years 1870-71 they had produced only 4,897,000 
oysters, but after this period of rest, in November, 1874, 8,500 persons 
assembled, and in the space of three hours, during which time the 
gathering was in progress, 40,360,000 oysters were taken from the sea. 
A great number of these were transplanted, as breeding oysters, to the 
prepared beds, which covered altogether an actual area of sea-bottom 
of 2,669 hectares (about 5,338 acres). 
Seoond: The former eat method of caring for the oysters had 
been improved to the extent that the young oysters were protected from 
their enemies, and care was exercised that during hot and cold weather 
they should always be kept under water. 
With the earlier methods very many of the young oysters were 
destroyed by their enemies, and often, during a few unfavorable summer 
or winter days, when a low tide left the beds dry, all the young oysters 
died. The extraordinary yield of oysters in the Bay of Arcachon and at 
other points along the coast of Brittany, as a result of the improved 
method of artificial oyster-breeding, has very materially lessened the 
price of oysters in France, despite an greater consumption occasioned 
by this abundance. In 1873 oysters sold for 43 franes per thousand, 
while in 1876 the price was 25 franes per thousand. On this account 
only those oyster-breeders who attend personally to the work and are 
assisted in it by their families make anything over and above all 
expenses. Those who undertake the breeding of oysters, relying upon 
outside help to do the great amount of work necessary, can gain re- 
turns scarcely worthy of the name; at least this is the case in the Bay 
of Arcachon, as I know from trustworthy sources. 
The cost of transforming a hectare of sea-bottom along this coast into 
an oyster-bed, together with the necessary apparatus for oyster-culture, 
and a guard-vessel as required by the government, is not less than 
seven to eight thousand franes.* 
* Besides the works of Coste, which have already been mentioned, the following 
also treat of oyster-breeding in the Bay of Arcachon: 
K, Mobius. Ueber Austern- und Miesmuschelzucht und die Hebung derselben an 
den norddeutschen Kiisten. (A report to the hon. minister of agriculture.) Berlin, 
1870. pp. 8. 
A. Tolle. Die Austernzucht und Seefischerei in Frankreich und England. (A report 
to the hon. minister of agriculture.) Berlin, 1871. pp.8. 
De fon. Notice sur la situation de Vostréiculture-en 1875. Paris, 1875. (Extract 
from the Maritime and Colonial Review. ) 
