28 REPORT ON OYSTER CULTURE. 



an area of eighty to ninety acres, available for breeding ponds, of 

 which there are five, of various sizes, from four to twenty-eight 

 acres. For plans of these beds, &c, see plate No. 9, Appendix. 



The Heme Bay Oyster Company's breeding ponds were esta- 

 blished with a view of assisting in the stocking of the extensive 

 layings of the Company (nine square miles) in the estuary of the 

 Thames.* Further down the bay there has been a small experi- 

 mental undertaking at Eeculvers. 



The Brading Oyster Company in the Isle of Wight have ponds 

 of about three acres in extent, using tiles, slates, and hurdles, &c, 

 as collectors, and obtained a good spat in 1869. 



At Lymington, ten acres of ponds produced some spat. 



We are not aware how far the foregoing undertakings have been 

 commercial successes. 



The ponds of George Tomline, esq., at Nacton, on the Orwell 

 river in Suffolk, gave a spat in 1867 and 1869, but not in 1868. 

 The collectors were hurdles, tiles, &c. 



The Medina Oyster Fisheries Company at Cowes and Newtown 

 in the Isle of Wight was established to work two oyster fisheries 

 at the above places. They have breeding ponds of twenty-four 

 acres in extent in connexion with the fisheries, and have obtained 

 a considerable amount of spat ; but how far their breeding opera- 

 tions have answered their purpose we are not in a position to 

 determine. They have, however, valuable fisheries independent 

 of them on which they chiefly rely for profit. Artificial operations 

 are carried on elsewhere, but are not of sufficient importance to 

 call for notice. 



Nearly all these ponds are similar, the chief differences being 

 in size, and in the kind of collectors used, some consisting of tiles, 

 others twigs, or fascines, slates, stones, and shells, attached by tar or 

 cement to boards. The depth of water varying from two to ten feet. 



Jersey. 



The seas about the Channel Islands, especially Jersey, formerly 

 abounded in oysters — the increased demand led to a vast increase 

 in the number of dredging vessels. 



Thirty thousand pounds has been realized from the beds per 

 annum, and employment afforded to 400 vessels, whilst now a 

 precarious livelihood is earned by the crews of three or four. (See 

 Appendix D.) 



According to the most intelligent and reliable persons who gave 

 evidence, this falling off must be mainly ascribed to over-dredging.t 



* This Company has expended a large sum in laying down oysters, both for 

 fattening and breeding, on these grounds. We dredged over a portion of them, 

 and found spat plentifully adhering to the cultch. 



f A gentleman well acquainted with the Jersey Oyster Fisheries has stated 

 that — " The value of the Jersey fishery has several times nearly reached 

 £30,000 a season, but for the last three or four it has been gradually getting 

 worse and worse, and is now scarcely worth working. . . . I am informed by 

 an owner of an oyster smack that about three or four vessels only now work the 

 ground instead of nearly three hundred six years since, that nearly all these are 

 now at work in mid-channel, and it would not pay even to work these three or 

 four constantly, in consequence of which the OAvners fill up their time with work 



