50 REPORT ON OYSTER CULTURE 



the outlay, the extent of which is generally difficult to calculate, 

 as considerable departures from the original plans would often be 

 necessitated in the event of the experiment not proving at once 

 successful of accomplishment. Foreshore cultivation such as is 

 in satisfactory operation at Auray in Brittany, described at pages 

 17 and w 23, would be found much less hazardous and easier of 

 accomplishment and in other respects more desirable generally for 

 Ireland. 



There are many places bordering on rivers and also on the sea 

 where enterprises of this kind might be profitably carried on. 



As already observed, it is much to be regretted that the prac- 

 tice so extensively prevails of selling oysters of immature growth 

 for exportation, there being so many places in Ireland which are 

 suitable for growth and fattening. It is most unwise to dispose 

 of oysters of a year or eighteen months old, often at as low a 

 price as 1 Q.s. per thousand, when, by laying them up for a longer 

 period, they would be vastly increased in value. 



It is also to be regretted that no restrictions have been enforced 

 against the continuous dredging of banks after they have com- 

 menced to show signs of exhaustion, as this would, in our opinion, 

 have tended considerably to avert the great falling off in supply 

 in several banks formerly productive. 



We are far from concurring in the opinion put forward by some 

 authorities that, owing to the wonderful productiveness of the 

 oyster, if only a few be left upon a bank they are sufficient for its 

 replenishment. 



It must be borne in mind that not more than ten per cent breed 

 annually, and that from the moment of its birth the oyster is sub- 

 ject to numerous dangers — amongst them it is liable to be killed 

 by a sudden fall or rise of temperature, to be borne to situations 

 where it cannot attach itself, to be devoured soon after birth by 

 the vermin that await it at that stage, or, later on, to be smothered 

 by mussels, or attacked by the star-fish, dog-whelk, and crab, be- 

 sides suffering numerous perils from mud and sand. 



The number that arrive at maturity must therefore be compara- 

 tively few. Indeed it is asserted that not a dozen on an average 

 out of the vast quantity originally given birth to, and which is 

 said to consist of from one to two millions, survive. 



Although we have collected a large amount of information with 

 respect to oyster produce in America and other countries, we 

 found that there were some important points of difference as 

 regarded the nature of the oyster, and the influences to which it 

 was subject, as compared with those of the British Islands and 

 France, we have therefore deemed it best to omit it. 



We have already given the leading facts with regard to the 

 best situations and circumstances for production and growth, as 

 well as the modus operandi of artificial culture and we have now 

 only to consider, with a view to arriving at some decision on the 

 point, the facts and evidence already alluded to as regards the 

 cause of the deterioration of the oyster fisheries. 



A perfectly unanswerable case is that of the Bay of Granville, 

 at one time possessed of a large accumulation of oysters, but now 



