364 HINTS TO THE OYSTER-FARMER. [CHAP. vm. 



conduct of our British oyster-parks. If, as seems to be 

 pretty certain, each matured oyster yields about two mil- 

 lions of young per annum, and if the greater proportion of 

 these can be saved by being afforded a permanent resting- 

 place, it is clear that, by laying down a few thousand breeders, 

 we may, in the course of a year or two, have, at any place we 

 wish, a large and reproductive oyster-farm. With reference 

 to the question of growth, Coste tells us that stakes which had 

 been fixed for a period of thirty months in the lake of Fusaro 

 were quite loaded with oysters when they came to be removed. 

 These were found to embrace a growth of three seasons. Those 

 of the first year's spawning were ready for the market ; the 

 second year's brood were a good deal smaller ; whilst the re- 

 mainder were not larger than a lentil. To attain miraculous 

 crops similar to those once achieved in the Bay of St. Brieuc, 

 or at the He de Ee, little more is required than to lay down 

 the spawn in a nice rocky bay, or in a place paved for the 

 purpose, and having as little mud about it as possible. A 

 place that had a good stream of water flowing into it is the 

 most desirable, so that the flock might procure food of a varied 

 and nutritious kind. A couple of hundred stakes driven into 

 the soft places of the shore, between high and low water mark, 

 and these well supplied with branches held together by gal- 

 vanised iron wire (common rope would soon become rotten), 

 would, in conjunction with the rocky ground, afford capital 

 holding-on places, so that any quantity of spawn might, in 

 time, be developed into fine " natives," or " whiskered pan- 

 dores." There are hundreds of places on the English and 

 Irish coasts where such farms could be advantageously laid 

 down. 



As showing the productiveness of some of the French 

 oyster-beds, it may be stated that 350,000 oysters were ob- 

 tained in the space of an hour from the Plessix bed, which is 

 half a mile from the port of Auray ; and, within a month or 



