850 ARTIFICIAL OYSTER CULTIVATION IN FRANCE. 
The princess Batichiochi, a near relation of the empe- 
ror, has a large farm in the bay of Quiberon, and sells 
oysters to supply the Paris restaurants and others, in large 
quantities; and, though her farm was only in its third 
year, it was, as the superintendent remarked with pride 
and pleasure, more than paying expenses ; but next year! 
“mais année prochaine nous ferons des belles affaires, 
allez!” 
The sale of the yearling seed is made a special business 
by some oystermen, and they bring from four to six 
francs the thousand. They are put up in round baskets 
with a small hole in the top, and are kept, at the season 
of sale, suspended from scaffoldings erected over the 
water for the purpose, so that the baskets are never above 
the suriace. 
The French oyster-growers are very particular that the 
oysters taken up for market shall lie for five or six days 
in the claires, before forwarding them to the consumers 5 
this is done in order that all mud and impurities shall be 
washed out in the pure sea-water, and the oyster is cer- 
tainly whiter-and handsomer for this clean bath. 
e Marennes, or green oyster, is colored by being 
placed in 'clatres when the tidal water is let out at certain 
intervals ; a confervoid growth is induced which gives the 
highly prized color and flavor, and doubles the value of 
the oyster. 
The Ostende oysters are placed in wooden vats, and are 
frequently tossed and tumbled about by women with 
rakes, thus breaking off the thin edge of the new growth 
of shell, and forcing it to grow more round and deep- 
_ Labor, in this country, is much too high to make a re- 
munerative cultivation of the oyster in this manner prac- 
ticable. 
