OSTREADjE. OYSTER. 73 



oflP by means of long poles, so that the shellfish farm 

 is divided into separate fields, each being in a parti- 

 cular stage of growth. At the time when the oysters 

 are lifted for the London or other markets, they are 

 measured by being thrown against a wire grating, and 

 all those under a certain size are thrown again into 

 the water. To give an idea of the business done in 

 the oyster trade, it may be stated that in 1860 the 

 Whitstable men took as much as £50,000, for native 

 oysters alone, which, after deducting the cost of the 

 brood, would still leave a handsome profit." There are 

 extensive fisheries opposite Milton, those of the Cheyney 

 Rock. We are told that their farmer, Mr. Alston, has 

 sent in a single season to London, more than 50,000 

 bushels of " natives" from this one fishery.* Mr. 

 JBuckland was informed upon the best authority, that out 

 of the open sea no less than £180,000 worth of human 

 food, in the form of oysters, is annually abstracted. f 



The " Milton natives" bear the bell, or may be said to 

 be the pearls among British oysters. King John granted 

 these fisheries to the Abbot of Faversham, in whose 

 hands they remained till the dissolution, and they have 

 been dredged from the earliest times by a company of 

 fishermen, ruled, like those of Faversham, by certain 

 ancient customs and bye-laws. J 



Jersey oysters .are brought over and bedded in South- 

 ampton Water, and the beds extend from theuce to the 

 coast of Osborne, in the Isle of Wight. They are de- 

 .scribed as being small, but of superior flavour, and are 

 conveyed long distances to be laid down, naturalized, 

 and afterwards sold as natives. They are also remark- 



* Murray's Handbook, Kent and Sussex, p. 64. t See ' Times.' 



J Murray's Handbook, Kent and Sussex, p. 64. 



