186 Causes Affecting Spatting Seasons. 



the fall of spat. It demonstrates, however, that the moderate 

 years (nigh half) far and away preponderate ; besides that, the 

 good seasons are in excess of the bad ones. Those persons 

 interested in the oyster industry some time ago justly harped in 

 the press on the terribly distressing years between 1851-64, 

 with ofttimes allusion to the bright interval 1858-59. Except- 

 ing for 1879, there has been annually fair falls of spat in some 

 portion of our District, and even a dozen good ones, equivalent 

 to a third of the interval. All this may be interpreted that, 

 despite the outcry of the run of bad seasons 1851-64, spatting 

 more often takes place with tolerably regular recurrence and 

 on the whole favourable.* 



That overfishing has been a prime moving force in the pro- 

 duction of poor spatting, which some have maintained, hardly 

 tallies with the course of things. So far as we are aware, the 

 dredging for brood within our District has not materially altered 

 for over a century. This doubtless does not apply to the 

 English Channel natural beds of adult oysters, which were 

 mercilessly swooped clean up by great fleets of smacks from 

 all quarters some 50 years ago. Even Bucklaiid and Wiseman's 

 theory of " heat and tranquility " only partly accounts for poor 

 spatting seasons. For example Dr. Bree mentions that in 1869 

 and 1871 (The Field), at Mersea and elsewhere, with one of 

 the coldest of Junes, fair spat ensued. 



Most probably a combination of agencies, and not one cause 

 alone, determines the oyster's fertility, and more essentially the 

 qua.ntity of spat that gets fixed. That meteorological conditions 

 at the time of spatting is one, may be taken for granted. 

 Though, as Mobius (op. cit.) has pointed out, something may 

 also depend on the condition of the parent oyster at the time 



* Curiously enough in France the spatting between 1851-56 was at its lowest ebb. 

 The well-known successful experiments of Prof. Coste, 1858-59, happily coincided with 

 good spatting seasons, there as in our District. Then a few succeeding years there was 

 temporary decline and bitter disappointment, when the trial artificial beds of St. 

 Brieuc were virtually destroyed by inclement weather. This corresponded nearly to 

 our bad spats 1860-64. Since 1865, with a long run of passable seasons, better results 

 have followed in the French endeavours, though, as admitted by M. DeBon,* the 

 artificial breeding of oysters can scarcely be successful excepting in the neighbourhood 

 of the natural spawning beds. ("Ostreiculture en, 1875 Revue Maritime et Coloniale. 

 Paris, 1875.) 



