CHAPTEE XII. 



ECONOMY OF AN OYSTEK-FAEM. 



English Oyster Farms — Whitstatle — Pont Oyster-Grounds — Price of Brood 

 — " Natives '•' — Colne Oyster-Beds — Cost of Working the Beds — 

 Increase of the Oyster — Demand for the Bivalve — Collecting for the 

 Beds — Newhaven Oyster-Beds — The "Whisker'd Pandore" — Song of 

 the Dredger — Oysters in America. 



A LARGE oyster-fann requires a great deal of careful attention, 

 and several people are, necessary to keep it in order. If the 

 farm be planted in a bay where the water is very shallow, there 

 is great danger of the stock suffering from frost ; and again, if 

 the brood be laid down in very deep water, the oysters do not 

 fatten or grow rapidly enough for profit. In dredging,- the 

 whole of the oysters, as they are hauled on board, should be 

 carefuUy examined and picked ; all below a certain size ought to 

 be returned to the water tUl their beards have grown large 

 enough. In winter, if the beds be in shallow water, the tender 

 brood must- be placed in a pit for protection from the frost ; 

 which of course takes up a great deal of time. Dead oysters 

 ought to be carefully removed from the beds. The proprietors 

 of private " layings " are generally careful on this point, and 

 put themselves to great trouble every spring to lift or overhaul 

 all their stock in order to remove the dead or diseased. Mussels 

 must be carefully rooted put from the beds ; otherwise they 

 would in a short time render them valueless. The layings, for 

 example, of Mr. David Plunkett, in Killery Bay, for which he 

 had a license from the Irish Board of Fisheries, were overrun by 

 mussels, and so rendered almost valueless. The weeding and 

 tending of an oyster-bed requires, therefore, much labour, and 

 involves either a partnership of several people — which is usual 

 enough, as at Whitstable — or at least the employment of several 

 dredgermen and labourers. But, for all that, an oyster-farm 



