366 OYSTER-FAKMS IN KENT AND ESSEX. [CHAP. vin. 



Board of Fisheries, were overrun by mussels, and so rendered 

 almost valueless. The weeding and tending of an oyster-bed 

 requires, therefore, much labour, and involves either a part- 

 nership of several people which is usual enough, as at 

 Whitstable or at least the employment of several dredger- 

 men and labourers. But, for all that, an oyster-farm may be 

 made a most lucrative concern. As a guide to the working 

 of a very large oyster-farm say a concern of 70,000 a year or 

 thereabout I shall give immediately some data of the Whit- 

 stable Free Dredgers' Company ; but I wish first to say that 

 the organisation which is constantly at work for supplying 

 the great metropolis with oysters is more perfect than can be 

 said of any other branch of the fish trade. In oyster-culture 

 we approach in some degree to the French, although we do 

 not, as they do, except as regards the new company, begin 

 at the beginning and plant the seed. All that we have 

 yet achieved is the art of nursing the young " brood," 

 and of dividing and keeping separate the different kinds 

 of oysters. This is done in parks or farms on various por- 

 tions of the coasts of Kent and Essex, and the whole pro- 

 cess, from beginning to end, may be viewed at Whitstable, 

 where there is a large oyster-ground and a fine fleet of boats 

 kept for the purpose of dredging and planting. I have 

 already stated that the Whitstable oyster-beds are held as by 

 a joint-stock company, into which, however, there is no other 

 way of entrance than by birth, as none but the free dredge- 

 men of the town can hold shares. When a man dies his 

 interest in the company dies with him, but his widow if he 

 was a married man obtains a pension. The sales from 

 the public and private beds of Whitstable sometimes attain 

 a total of 200,000 per annum. The business of the com- 

 pany is managed by twelve directors, who are known as 

 " the Jury." The stock of oysters held in the private layings 

 of the .company is said to be of the value of 200,000. The 



