of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 
229 
thing might be done towards cultivating oysters in Scotland ; and there 
can be no doubt that there are places in Scotland where oyster culture 
Avould have a reasonable prospect of success. This is especially true for 
those localities where oysters formerly existed in abundance, but even 
there close attention is an essential of success. It cannot be too much 
insisted on that there are two diatinct branches of oyster culture, viz., 
the breeding and the feeding, requiring entirely different characters of 
water, ground, &c. Recently I saw tiles which had been laid down in a 
western loch, presumably for the purpose of catching the spat, which*, 
however, had been laid down rather for giving a basis of attachment for 
serpulx and barnacles. By the time the oysters will be ready to spat, if 
they do spat, the entire surface of the tiles will be in such a condition 
that there will be no room for the oyster spat. Tiles which are laid in 
the water five or six months before the oyster has been known in this 
country to throw its spat, can only be covered with mud and a variety oi: 
organisms, whose seasons of reproduction are much earlier, and whose 
young take up every foot of available space of such surface as clean 
tiles will present. The collectors — tiles or otherwise — should not be 
placed in the water until alter examination, it has been found that the 
bulk of the oysters are ready to spat. 
Besides a dissemination of accurate information as to the methods of 
oyster culture, a knowledge of the physical, biological, and other conditions 
of reputed oyster ground ought to be obtained. The Fishery Board is 
now engaged in this work, and several lochs on the West Coast of Scot- 
land are being investigated with this object in view. 
As to the branch of the oyster industry to which oyster cultivators 
might look for success, on the West Coast of Scotland in selected 
localities we could at least feed and fatten oysters. We have not 
sufficient information as to the spatting of the West Coast oyster, and we 
cannot rely on the waters of our coast being so warm as the French seas are. 
Yet even with our less warm waters, oysters have in recent years spatted 
in our seas. I have dredged oysters on the West Coast which ranged in 
age from two years upwards. Some were spatted as late as 1888, while 
many were produced in 1886, in one of our western lochs. 
Attempts have been made at oyster culture in Scotland, but the best 
authorities agree that if oyster culture is to make permanent progress in 
this country, experimental operations should be conducted on a much 
more extensive scale than hitherto. Intending ostreicultruists should 
bear in mind that they can obtain a cheap supply of oysters, ranging in 
size from one inch to two and a half or even three inches, at a very 
reasonable figure, and that now when special steamers have been built for 
conveying oysters from France, the mortality in transport is reduced to a 
minimum. The proprietors of oyster-feeding pares in France find that 
this industry gives a very large return, and if the same were attempted 
in Scotland, I have no doubt that lessees of suitable ground, might 
engage in this branch, i.e., in oyster fattening, with reasonable prospects 
of success. 
