XXX 
Eighth Annual Report of the 
Enemies of 
the Oyster. 
Chief causes 
of depletion 
are over- 
fishing, river 
pollution, and 
deposits of 
mud. 
The system 
of collecting 
the Spat. 
In France. 
In America. 
Security of 
Tenure 
necessary. 
A perpetual 
Franchise to 
the ground 
granted, 
v.hich is the 
i nly practical 
solution of 
the Oyster 
question. 
the whelk, and a small univalve mollusc called the "drill" (Uro- 
salpinx cinerea) ; but it is found that the damage done by the preda- 
tory attacks of these animals is small compared with excessive 
fishing, river pollution, and the deposition of mud killing the infant 
brood. These facts indicate clearly enough the direction in which 
our efforts for the multiplication of the oyster and the revival of our 
oyster beds ought to proceed. 
Both in France and America the plan which has been followed 
is, not to produce oysters artificially, but to try to collect the spat 
as it comes by natural means upon ' collectors.' The method used 
at Arcachon is during the spawning season to suspend tiles in the 
water coated with plaster, to which the young oysters readily adhere. 
When they have set upon the tiles the latter are taken up, the 
plaster is sheared off with the adhering oysters, and the tile is 
planted again. The plaster holding the spat is then planted out 
like a plant taken from a seed bed, and allowed to grow up to 
maturity under conditions adapted to its proper preservation. 
In America the method followed is in principle the same, but 
carried out in a very different manner. It is found unnecessary to 
have recourse to the troublesome and expensive method which is 
followed in France of collecting the spat. Be fuse oyster shells, 
tiles, slates, a lot of dead bushes weighted with stones and heaved 
overboard — anything, in fact, to which the young oyster can cling 
is laid down in some inland basin over which the tide ebbs and 
Hows. In this manner there is formed an artificial bottom, which 
is planted and replanted, so that the spat is carried over them. It 
takes from three to four years for the spat to grow" to maturity in 
some places, although in others they are ready for market in the 
second or third year. It thus becomes necessary for the oyster 
planter to have three or four separate plots of ground, to be yearly 
seeded in succession, so as to give him a crop for each year. 
Where so much depends upon the planter himself, it is obviously 
proper that he should have a direct personal interest in the work 
in which he is engaged. No one could be expected to cultivate 
the oyster land scientifically, and at considerable expense, unless 
lie is made reasonably certain that he will be allowed to reap the 
fruit, and it is only by guaranteeing security of tenure that the 
State can prevent the reckless and excessive dredging which has 
been the ruin of natural beds, and stimulate the fisherman to take 
the measures necessary for the protection of his oysters from their 
natural enemies. 
With this view, an Act was passed by the State of Connecticut 
(since made the model of similar legislation in several of the 
neighbouring States), under which, in consideration of a certain 
payment, and a small annual tax, the fisherman obtains from the 
State a perpetual franchise of the ground under the sea, which he 
occupies and holds. Under the operation of this Act, many 
thousand acres in Long Island Sound have been taken up by the 
planters, and are now being cultivated with remarkable success. 
The system lias been cordially accepted by the fishermen. It is 
approved by all the leading oyster experts in America ; 1 and there 
' can be no doubt,' says Mr Blackford, f that this is the only prac- 
' ticable solution of the oyster question.' Iu 1889 the Commia- 
