LOK OYSTER AND MUSSEL INDUSTRIES. 843 
ance of the seed might be gathered, by very simple and cheap means, 
on the natural beds themselves without ever exhausting them. It 
would be sufficient to fix upon the beds, some time before the spawning 
period, by means of anchors or weights, a quantity of bushes tied with 
ropes, to one or more buoys; these bundles might be taken out five or 
six months after their submersion, either to be carried to the claires, 
where the sorting of the oysters which may be clinging to them could 
easily be done, or for the purpose of detaching the oysters of suitable 
size to be placed in the perfecting basins. The young ones which have 
not attained sufficient size may be left on the branches, which should 
again be placed in the reserved part of the pools, or on the beds them- 
selves; here they will grow rapidly, and from them a second and third 
crop may be taken. I recommend, with all confidence, the adoption of 
this process, as I have proof of its success. M. Ackermann, commissary 
of marine at Marennes, having caused some pieces of wood to be drawn 
out from an oyster-bed, where he had driven in the pickets at my 
request to receive new generations, found them covered with seed. The 
young attached to these fragments had collected in sufficiently large 
numbers to justify the supposition that a few stakes or fagots would be 
sufficient to stock a claire. The commissary at Marennes thus an- 
pounces the sending of the specimens in question: 
‘“‘T am happy, sir, to be able to announce to you to-day the shipping 
of a box containing embryonic oysters adhering to pieces of wood. I 
have indicated their approximate age estimated by the Oysterman 
Babeau. The specimens which you will receive come from on the rock 
called Bouchot, which M. Gabion formerly owned, where we had placed 
stakes; there is no doubt in my mind that oysters can, like mussels, be 
raised from bouchots.” 
The claires of Marennes now furnish annually for consumption 
50,000,000 oysters, the price of which varies from one france and a half 
to six franes per hundred, which, at an average of three francs, repre- 
sent the enormous sum of 2,000,000 frances. They are shipped to all the 
southern villages of France, from Bordeaux to Marseilles, and from the 
latter city to Italy and Algeria. Those which are intended for the latter 
countries are deposited in the Marseilles ponds, where they are left at 
rest some days before being reshipped. Paris consumes very few; they 
prefer there generally, as in other more northern cities, the white 
oysters of Normandy, which are furnished in great quantities. 
The oyster, therefore, is important as an article of food and of com- 
merce. Many localities along our seaboard owe to it their prosperity, 
and among those which are most noted, the banks of the bay of Seudre 
are best esteemed. On the left bank especially, the inhabitants are 
almost entirely occupied in this culture and enjoy a great reputation 
on account of the superior quality which the soil gives to the oysters 
raised there. 
To give an idea of the prosperity which this business produces in the 
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