IN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND FRANCE. 45 



A method of coating tiles by dipping them in a thin mortar or 

 cement so that the oysters might be more easily detached, has 

 been invented by Dr. Kemmerer. As far as the detachment is con- 

 cerned it is certainly an improvement ; but collectors so coated 

 are liable to collect the dirt more easily than others. The oysters 

 are usually detached when they have made a suitable growth, so 

 as not to be damaged in the operation, and this should be when 

 they are about a year old. 



The tank or enclosure method is more particularly adapted for 

 companies, or individuals resident in the neighbourhood or the 

 locality where such basins naturally formed exist, or where the en- 

 closure can be rendered complete at a moderate cost. It is not 

 adapted for the poorer class of the peasantry, but still it affords 

 constant employment to a considerable number of persons, and it 

 may be remarked that both for this and the foreshore cultivation 

 the labour of women and children is available, a great portion 

 of the duties required being of a light description. 



Ireland presents from its peculiar configuration many places 

 suitable for oyster culture in this way, which can be rendered pro- 

 ductive to a great degree at a small cost. 



With respect to the best kind of collectors to be employed on 

 the Irish coast, these must be governed by the facilities offered 

 by the neighbourhood, as they are very various. 



Tiles are cheap in France, hence their introduction as collectors ; 

 the average cost is one sou each, or £2 per thousand. At Auray, 

 one cultivator possesses 200,000 tiles, and upon these he obtained 

 in 1869, six millions of oysters. 



At such places, for example, as Tralee, Carlingford, Achill, 

 Belmullet, and other localities, where the rocks naturally collect 

 each year a large number of oysters, tiles would prove very 

 effective. If too expensive for the class of persons who pick 

 these oysters from the rocks, it would be worth while for some 

 one to advance the cost, and receive it back in the following 

 year when the harvest of oysters would enable the peasants to 

 repay the loan ; or, failing this spirit of enterprise in the inha- 

 bitants, the peasants should be instructed to break up the rocks, 

 and place them in rows as already shown at page 24, so as to offer 

 clean surfaces for the spat that rises from the bay. 



The best arrangement of tiles in such places as Tralee and 

 Bantry Bay, would probably be that shown in the engravings at 

 pp. 37 and 38, Nos. 20, 21, 22, and 23 ; but in places where the 

 ground admits of stakes being driven, those shown in figs. 22 and 

 23 are preferable. Collectors of wood are unsuitable for such 

 places, catching passing weeds, and becoming slimy and foul, 

 and therefore useless. 



Appropriate places for Cultivation. 



The best places for cultivation are harbours, quiet bays, and 

 estuaries of rivers. Exposed sea coast, though not the most de- 

 sirable ground, may still be utilized where rocks or large stones 

 abound, to which oysters can attach themselves, and from which 



