396 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
season, in many cases, tlie cleanliness of the new-made ponds has given the experi- 
ments almost a phenomenal success. 
Permanent successes in pond culture have never occurred, and in the present con- 
nection it would scarcely seem necessary to consider in detail the experiments carried 
on at various times by the establishments at Reculvers, Emsworth, North and South 
Hayling, Braiding, Newton, and Poole. 
To be able to buy seed oysters cheaply in France has obviously been of far greater 
importance to the English culturist than all of his experiments at production, and as 
an alternative has no doubt caused this branch of the industry to be neglected. Young 
seeds transplanted to English waters become, after three years of growth, identical 
in shape and taste with English natives,* and are often sold both by culturists and 
dealers at the j trices of the best grade of natives. The profit in such a case is so great 
that it becomes of great commercial advantage for unscrupulous culturists or compa- 
nies to keep profoundly secret the origin of its seed oysters as well as their relations 
with the buying agents in France and the selling agents in London. 
CONCESSIONS. 
The English oyster-grounds may be roughly classed as public, private, or conces- 
sional. The public grounds include all natural beds and unoccupied portions of the 
foreshore. They may be worked within stated months, and as their limits and favor- 
able points are well known to the fishermen, they are in general exhaustively dredged. 
Private grounds extending under water have practically the same vested rights as 
farming land; but their use in oyster-culture, by reason probably of expense, appears 
to be limited. 
By far the greater part of the English cultivated grounds are held directly 
from Parliament by a fishery order obtained by petition through the Board of Trade. 
By this means a company or individuals may obtain on long lease at almost nominal 
rental a tract of the foreshore, but with the condition that it must be cultivated, 
or, on an adverse report of an inspector of fisheries, revert to the state. This stip- 
ulation has in many instances proven a very desirable one, since it has allowed 
the lands to become used by a second tenant if a former one was remiss in its cultiva- 
tion. Culturists accordingly are subject to the criticism of their neighbors, and on 
their complaint to an investigation by the Board of Trade, whose inspectors determine 
and report whether the concession, altogether or in part, is maintaining its usefulness 
to the general public. This feeling in regard to taking away property from the public 
fisheries, sharpened by much adverse criticism when the matter of fishery orders was 
being discussed, has no doubt had its weight in rendering the process of obtaining a 
concession a long and somewhat troublesome one. 
* This was stated to the writer by one of the most influential culturists at Whitstable. The cir- 
cular mark showing the original attachments of French seed to the tile becomes in many instances 
obliterated; its absence can not therefore be regarded as an infallible test. 
