DREDGING FOR OYSTERS. 



hiuidied diiily. But we must beg to refuse our credence 

 to tliis fabulous exaggeration. 



Montaigne says : — '' To be sul ject to tlie colic, or to 

 deiirive oneself of eating oysters, are two serious evils. 

 Il' we must choose between the two, let us hazard 

 something in pursuit of pleasure." 



According to M. Payne, si.xteen dozen oysters repre- 

 sent the three hundred and fifteen (jrammes of dry 

 azotized food necessary for the daily support of a man 

 of average stature. Consi'quentl}', to nourish a hundred 

 persons for one day upon oysters only, we should 

 require nineteen thousand two hundred I 



Dredging for Oysters. 



Ill Mr. Bertram's valuable and interesting work on 

 " The Harvest of the Sea," we find a graphic descrip- 

 tion of oyster-dredging as practised in the Firth of 

 I'Virth. 



The times for going out to dredge are, he says, at 

 high tide and low tide. The boats used are the 

 smaller-sized ones employed in the white fishery. In 

 shape the dredge is not unlike a common clasp purse ; 

 it is formed of network, and attached to a stout iron 

 frame, which serves to keep the mouth of the engine 

 open, and acts also as a sinker, giving it the requisite 

 degree of pressure as it travels over the oyster-beds. 



When the boat reaches a point above the oyster 

 scalps the dredger is lowered by a rope attached to 

 the upper ring, and is worked by one man, except in 

 cases where the boat has to be sailed swifily, when two 

 are employed. Of course, when the wind is unfavour- 

 able or the weather calm, recourse must be had to 

 the oars. The tension upon the rope is the signal for 

 hauling the dredger on board, when the entire contents 

 are emptied into the boat, and the dredge is again 

 returned to the water. 



These contents, not including the oysters, are of a 

 very motley character — stones, sea-weed, young lob- 

 sters, anemones, star-fish, crabs — all of which are 

 usually re-committed to the deep, some of them being 

 considered as the most fattening ground-bait for the 

 cod-fish. The whelks, mussels, clams, cockles, and 

 occasionally the crabs, are employed by the fishermen 

 as bait for their white-fish lines. 



During the time the dredging process is carried on, 

 the crew maintain a sort of wild monotonous chant, 

 6u|iposod to possess a peculiar charm for the oyster: — 



'* The herring loves the merrv moonlight; 

 Tlie mackerel loves the wind ; 

 But the oyster loves the dredj^er's song, 

 I-'ur he comes of a gentle kind." 



In England the jirincipal oyster-grounds are on the 

 coasts of Kent and Essex. At Whitstable the beds 

 are famous for their abundant and savoury growth, 

 and from their long-continued prosperity have attained 

 the name of the " happy fishing-grounds." A space of 

 twenty-seven miles is here occupied in oyster farms, 

 and the industry connected with them involves the 

 incoming and outcoming of a very considerable sum 

 of money, and the employment of about three thou- 

 sand people. 



At Whitstable the course of work, according to Mr. 

 Bertram, is as follows : — ■ 



The business of the company is to feed oysters fur 

 the metropolitan and provincial markets, for which pur- 

 pose they buy brood or spat, and lay it down in their 

 beds to grow. When the company's own oysters 

 produce a spat — that is, when the spawn, or " float- 

 some," as the dredgers call it, emitted from their own 

 beds falls upon their own ground — it is of great benefit, 

 as it saves purchases of brood to the extent of what 

 has fallen ; but this falling of the spat is in a great 

 degree accidental, for no rule can be laid down as to 

 whether the oysters will spawn in any particular year, 

 or where the spawn may be carried to. 



The whole extent of the layings is annually explored 

 by means of the dredge ; successive portions are 

 dredged over daily, till it may be said that almost 

 every individual oyster has been examined. On these 

 occasions the brood is detached from the cullet, double 

 oysters are separated, and all kinds of enemies — and 

 these are very numerous — are seized upon and killed. 



To work the beds effectually requires about eight 

 men per acre. During three days a week dredging is 

 carried on for what is called planting — that is, the 

 transference of the oysters from one place to another, 

 as may be thought suitable for their growth, the 

 clearing away of mussels, and the removal of the dead 

 molluscs. On the other three days of the week the 

 dredges are at work for the market, lifting so many 

 oysters as may be necessary to meet the demand. A 

 bell is carried round and rung every morning to rouse 

 the dredgers whose turn it is to be on duty, and who 

 start to their daily avocations at a certain signal. 



The ratio of oyster reproduction will be clearly 

 understood from the following table, which shows the 

 estimated annual rate of development and increase of 

 value — calculated at fourfold, during a period of four 

 years — of a breeding oyster-bed of the extent of one 

 acre, situated in the Thames estuarv, capable of pro- 

 ducing a good quality of "natives," and stocked with one 

 thousand bushels of oysters of sixteen hundred each*: — 



FIRST YEAR. 



■20G busliels, each containing 25,00 ) oysters, first 

 year's spawn, in first year of growtii, sput at '20*. 

 per bushel, ....... £256 



SECOND VKAK. 



1000 bushels, each containing G-lOO oysters, first 

 year's spawn, in second vear of growth, brood at 

 25s. per busliel, . ' X1250 



25(j bushels, each containing 25,000 oysters, second 

 year's spawn, in first year of growth, spat at 20*. 

 per bushel, 256 



£1506 



THIRD YEAR. 



2667 bushels, each containing 2400 oysters, first year's 

 spawn, in third year of growth, ware at 30*. per 

 Imshel, ........ 



1000 bushels, containing each 6400 oysters, second 

 year's growth, brood at 25*. per bushel, 



256 bushels, each containing 25,000 oysters, third 

 year's spawn, in lirst year of* growth, spat at 20*. 

 per bushel, ....... 



X4000 

 1250 



256 



£5506 



Barry, Blue Book on the Irish Oyster Kiaherits, 



