184 Fertility and Irregularity of Spatting Seasons. 



Fertility. The breeding of the oyster (0. edulis) whether 

 indigenous natives or imported within our Kent and Essex 

 area presumably is of regular annual occurrence. No one we 

 know of though has verified the fact of reproduction in the 

 same individual oyster for several successive seasons. Such 

 observation or experiment might be worth trial. Still, those 

 oysterculturists of both counties who have given attention to 

 the subject affirm that the great body of the adult oysters do 

 spawn every summer. Some reckon that in favourable seasons 

 90 per cent.* " sicken " ; but under adverse conditions con- 

 sequently fewer. Intermissions of procreative capacity however 

 are quite feasible. A constant annual fertility seems inconsis- 

 tent with the long serial succession of complete failures in 

 spatting seasons. Yet the two statements are not antagonistic, 

 for breeding may be regular, counteracted sometimes by vast 

 destruction of floating spat. 



The prosperity of the Kent and Essex native oyster indus- 

 try, particularly Whitstable, Burnham and Colchester, depends 

 on the supply of native brood from the natural beds before 

 mentioned, as well as the favoured spatting grounds of the 

 Roach River and the Kentish Flats. 



Spatting Seasons. The irregularity and inequality of oyster 

 spatting seasons within our District for the last half century 

 is worthy of consideration. To this end we have searched 

 through a number of sources, f in some only eliciting scraps of 

 information, in others obtaining more definite data. It was 

 sufficient though to indicate the uncertain distribution of fall 

 at different places. For example, it might be fairly abundant 

 in the Roach, less satisfactory in the Colne or in the Black- 

 water ; and generally a good season on the Essex coast is a bad 

 one on the Kentish side, and vice versa. Omitting places and 



* Prof. Mobius calculates on more accurate data, that in the Schleswig-Holstein 

 beds only 41 per cent, bring forth broods of young oysters in the course of a summer. 

 " Die auster und die Austerwirthschaft," 1877 transl. Rep. U.S. Fish Commis. for 

 1880(1883). 



t Among others the long series of The Field, Land and Water, Fish Trades Gazette, 

 Board of Trade Reports, Parliamentary Papers, &c. 



