894 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [10] | 
succeeded in securing the prosperity of the oyster-beds, provided they 
were established upon bottoms naturally productive and not entirely 
exhausted; the success of enterprises whose object is to reconstruct beds, 
of which not a trace remains, or to create entirely new beds, is much more 
problematical. In this latter case the lessons taught by experience have 
not been lost. Since 1865, the department, without refusing to engage 
in all attempts at starting new beds, has especially endeavored to main- 
tain the already existing ones, to improve them by timely cleansing or 
by the additions of shell-fish brought from richer localities, and, finally, 
to strengthen the watch upon them, which is the best method of preserv- 
ing them. Thus, in several localities they have been gradually raised 
from the decay into which they had fallen. 
Results of the continued enforcement of these regulations.—Oyster culture, 
properly so called, has advanced continuously, and in the course of its 
progress there has been brought to light a fact of prime importance, 
viz., that the artificial breeding of oysters can scarcely be successful 
excepting in the neighborhood of the natural spawning-beds. Thus the 
oyster-park of the island of Ré became sterile as soon as the neighbor- 
ing natural beds which supplied it had disappeared. ‘The abandonment 
of the attempts at oyster culture at Cancale was contemporaneous with 
a prolonged impoverishment of the oyster-beds in the bay of Mont-Saint- 
Michel; these beds are now becoming filled up again, and oyster-cultural 
industry has reappeared upon the shores of that bay, at Vivier, where 
it is increasing daily. It is the same at Arcachon and in the rivers of 
Morbihan. The oyster propagates well in parks, as was demonstrated 
by M. De Bon, and perhaps at some future time it will be possible by 
improved methods to collect the spawn artificially produced in sufficient 
quantities, especially if the operation be performed in a favorable me- 
dium; but at present an abundant supply of spat from large natural 
beds is essential to success. 
Progress made by private industry—Improved methods—Revival of 
oyster culture—On the other hand, the oyster culturists, taught by their 
own experiences and by the results attained through the government 
experimental parks, became more self-reliant ; they improved their im- 
plements and their methods of work. It may be affirmed that in the 
two principal centers in which it is now carried on, the basin of Arcachon 
and Morbihan, this industry then emerged from its period of-uncertainty. 
The great profits realized there during the past few years have brought 
oyster culture again into favor and turned toward it a current of labor 
and capital much greater than that which flowed in the same direction 
after the publication of M. Coste’s report. Requests for concessions of 
parks are received by the minister of marine from all quarters of the 
coast. Attempts are being made to reconstruct old and abandoned es- 
tablishments, while new ones are being started in the majority of local- 
ities where others formerly existed. Those seeking grants desire par- 
ticularly the unclaimed localities in the basin of Arcachon and the rivers 
