IV CULTIVATION OF THE OYSTER IN FRANCE 107 



our own, and has reached a higher degree of scientific perfection 

 combined with economy and solid profits. And yet, between 

 40 and 50 years ago, the French beds were utterly exhausted 

 and unproductive, and showed every sign of failure and decay. 

 It was in 1858 that the celebrated beds on the lie de T16, near 

 Rochelle, were first started. Their originator was a certain 

 shrewd stone-mason, by name Boeuf. He determined to try, 

 entirely on his own account, whether oysters could not be made 

 to grow on the long muddy fore-shore which is left by the ebb 

 of the tide. Accordingly, he constructed with his own hands a 

 small basin enclosed by a low wall, and placed at the bottom a 

 number of stones picked out of the surrounding mud, stocking 

 his ' pare ' with a few bushels of healthy young brood. The 

 experiment was entirely successful, in spite of the jeers of his 

 neighbours, and Boeuf's profits, which soon began to mount up 

 at an astonishing rate, induced others to start similar or more 

 extensive farms for themselves. The movement spread rapidly, 

 and in a few years a stretch of miles of unproductive mud banks 

 was converted into the seat of a most prosperous industry. The 

 general interests of the trade appear to be regulated in a similar 

 manner to that at Whitstable ; delegates are appointed by the 

 various communities to watch over the business as a whole, 

 while questions affecting the well-being of oyster-culture are 

 discussed in a sort of representative assembly. 



At the same time as Boeuf was planting his first oysters on 

 the shores of the He de Re, M. Coste had been rej^orting to the 

 French government in favour of such a system of ostreiculture 

 as was then practised by the Italians in the old classic Lakes 

 Avernus and Lucrinus. The principle there adopted was to 

 prevent, as far as possible, the escape of the spat from the 

 ground at the time when it is first emitted by the breeding 

 oyster. Stakes and fascines of wood were placed in such a 

 position as to catch the spat and give it a chance of obtaining a 

 hold before it perished or was carried away into the open sea. 

 The old oyster beds in the Bay of St. Brieuc were renewed on 

 this principle, banks being constructed and overlaid with bundles 

 of wood to prevent the escape of the new spat. The attempt 

 was entirely successful, and led to the establishment or re- 

 establishment of those numerous pares, with which the French 

 coast is studded from Brest to the Gironde. The principal 



