192 Oyster Culture in England. 
the size ofa man’s fist. A fisherman hauling up his dredge 
could tell by the size of the oysters in which part of the 
shoals he was working without looking at his marks. A 
few years since these oysters fetched 3s. per tub, but they 
are now sold at 18s, and the yield per dredge-full has 
therefore lessened naturally from the overworking of the 
shoals, but still the banks fill up again with the fish from 
an inexhaustible source. The collection of spat and oyster- 
lings on public fishing grounds for laying down in private 
ponds for growth and fattening has been carried on at Ems- 
worth and Langston, as in a number of other placeson ours > 
coasts, for many years, but no attempt was made at oyster 
culture proper, until France set us the example. In 1845, 
M. Carbonel read a paper at a meeting of the French 
Academy, in which he urged the necessity of taking steps 
to restock the oyster beds then becoming exhausted. In 
1849, Professor De Quatrefages urged the same thing, and 
the Government ordered M. Coste to report on the subject. 
In 1855, M. Coste’s report was received and published, and 
in 1861 a second edition appeared recounting the state in 
which the natural beds had been found and the means taken 
torestock them. In 1863, 4, and 5, M. Coste’s method was 
introduced, not altogether successfully at Herne Bay and 
Southend, by means of companies formed for the purpose, 
Mr. Buckland in 1865 expressing an opinion that the system 
of M. Coste, so successful in France, was not practicable in 
English waters owing to the difference in temperature and 
the lesser amount of the Gulf str2am in the English than 
in the French waters. In June, 1865, Mr. G. W. Hart, the 
present manager of the South of England Oyster Company 
visited the west coast of France, and inspected the oyster 
beds at St. Brieux and Ile de Ré, and other places, and 
came toa conclusion contrary to that of Mr. Buckland. 
The South of England Oyster Company was immediately 
afterwards formed, and it is to the proceedings of the 
company to this date that we wish to draw attention, as 
very few persons will deny that all facts connected with 
oyster culture in this country are of interest, and that our 
knowledge of the subject, which at present is very limited, 
will be best extended by open discussion. 
_ The company have secured a large space of ground as 
oyster beds for the future, close to the village of Havant 
on the north-west shore of Hayling Island, which will give 
three beds of about forty-six acres in all. The defunct 
Hayling Island railway has cut off this land from the sea, 
