14— THE PRESENT METHODS OF OYSTER-CULTURE IN FRANCE. 
BY BASHFORD DEAN. 
I.— INTRODUCTION. 
The studies upon which the present report are based were conducted by the writer 
during the summer and autumn of 1891, under instructions from the United States 
Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries. The discussion of the results of his observations 
has been made as pertinent as possible to the conditions of the American waters. 
When one has carefully examined oyster- culture in France, it appears more than 
ever mauifest why the industry at home has been a profitable one. It has certainly 
required the exercise of but little labor, and all costly methods of cultivation could 
have proven of little practical value. So great has been our natural supply of oysters 
that we have always thought far distant the need of replenishment. 
If, however, the present condition of our industry must be improved, there are 
fortunately but few natural obstacles to overcome, and we may well be hopeful. Our 
oysters are of a hardy and prolific species, our coast is a natural collecting-place for 
seed, and the conditions of our oyster-bearing grounds are practically as good as ever. 
We have in no degree the adverse conditions that the French have so successfully 
encountered. Their coast regions, in the first place, favorable to a natural growth of 
oysters, are both few and small. Their waters, even in some of the best-known localities, 
are often turbid, accumulate sediment, and give rise to shiftings of muddy bottoms. 
Culture has had to bring into use the softest flats and mud banks, crusting them 
over with gravel and sand; it has had to devise every possible way of protecting its 
oysters from sediment, mud burial, and enemies. Finally, there are but two points 
along their entire coast where seed oysters occur in any natural abundance. Skill in 
culture, however, has enabled Arcachon and Auray to supply readily the great home 
demand for seed, and even to furnish in large part the parks of the Low Countries and 
England, a success the more remarkable when we consider how recently was the French 
coast so depleted that for the first experiments in cultivation the oysters were actually 
purchased from other countries. 
Natural difficulties have caused the French to study division of labor in the 
industry; to make, for example, one locality furnish the seed, another to raise the 
oyster to maturity, a third to flavor or color it, and sometimes even a fourth to pre- 
pare it for transport. 
Under these conditions the growth of the industry has been especially and almost 
entirely dependent upon the wise action of the Government. The reservation of the 
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