9 
Jilr. J. A. BlaJce, Inspector of Irish Fisheries, examined by the said Committee :—He said a place 
that is fit for fattening is not good for production, and, where production is most successful, there is the least 
done iu the way of flavouring and fattening oysters. For example, one Honorable Member of this Com¬ 
mittee has got a very good place for production, which he (Blake) has recently examined at his request, 
but it will never fatten nor flavour oysters, in his opinion. He must either send his oysters to where there 
is a marly soil like the London blue clay, or he must make fattening beds of his own by bringing the 
suitable soil. He is very strongly in favour of private fisheries, 
Mr, S. WalpoUj Inspector of Salmon Fisheries, examined by tbe said Committee ;—He said there 
are a great many beds in England where the oysters are never sold for purposes of food, but to be laid 
down on other beds, in order that they may be fattened and brought to market subsequently. He thinks, 
with great submission to the Committee, that the chief object ought to be to protect the breeding beds. 
JDr. Kemmercr^ one of the most eminent of French oyster culturists, is of opinion that the oysters 
in the claires (fattening beds) are usually sterile, and that over-fatness is the cause in most cases. 
8 . From tbe evidence taken during the same year (187G) before a Select Committee of tbe House 
of Commons, and this Commission, it would appear that in England it was considered to be all-important 
to protect the breeding beds and secure the spat, whilst in this country the spat was so superabundant 
that it was not thought to be worth collecting and placing in suitable ground where it would grow and 
fatten. The time, however, will come, and probably is not far distant, when tbe immensity of oyster spat 
in this Colony will be utilised, and when oysters will become an important article of food for home con¬ 
sumption, aud of commercial value for exportation; and when we shall not be satisfied with utilizing 
only what Nature so lavishly bestowed upon us without labour, but wo shall also employ artificial means 
to breed as well as to fatten oysters. 
9. The oyster is generally 8upi>osed to be hermaphrodite, and tbe spatting usually takes place 
when the parent oyster is from three to four years old. An oyster is estimated to produce between one and 
two million oysters at a birth, and of this spat a large proportion is destroyed by fish, crabs, and other 
enemies, or from the want of some hard substance to which it can adhere. The whole of the spat would 
perish if there were no other holding-on place for it than sand or mud. 
10. With respect to the best kind of collectors to be employed, cultivators must be governed by tbe 
facilities offered in the neighbourhood, and they are very various. For instance, where wood is plentiful, 
as in this country, the best and cheapest means for securing tbe spat is probably the branches of trees, 
especially those of the swamp oak, but in places where there are few trees other means must be adopted. 
At the Island of Ee, where there are few trees, stones and tiles have been largely used as collectors of 
oyster spat. At oue time there was quite a furore for oyster culture on that island, and several thousand 
pares, as they are called, were constructed on the foreshores of that island. Bertram, in his “Harvest of 
the Sea,” says: — “The secret of there being only a holding-on place required for tbe spat to insure an 
immensely-increased supply of oysters having been penetrated by the French people, tbe plan of syste¬ 
matic oyster culture was easy enough. A few initiatory experiments speedily settled the fact that 
oysters could be grown iu any quantity. Oyster culture was begun as recently as 1858 at 
lie, and in 18G8 there were on that island upwards of 4,000 pares and claires. The system of 
breeding oysters, that is, securing the spat in claires, was, Bertram says, inaugurated by a 
stoneinasou of the name of Boeuf. He enclosed a portion of tbe foreshore of the island, about 
30 yards square, with a wall of rough stones about IS inches high, and in this enclosure or pare he laid 
down a few bushels of growing oysters. The result of this initiatory experiment was so successful that 
in the course of a year he was able to sell £6 worth of oysters. Elated by the profit of his experiment 
ho proceeded to double the proportions of his pare, and by that means more than doubled his oyster com¬ 
merce, for in ISGl he was able to dispose of upwards of £20 worth, and this without impoverishing in the 
least degree his breeding stock. He continued to increase the dimensions of his farm, so that by 1862 
his sales had increased to £40. When the great success of Boeuf’s experiments had been proclaimed in 
the neighbourliood, a little army of about a thousand labourers came down from the interior of the country 
and, along with the native fishermen, took possession of portions of the shore, which were ceded to them 
by the French Government at a nominal rent of about a frauc a week, to be cultivated as oyster pares. 
The moat arduous duty of these men consisted in clearing off the mud, which lay on the shore in large 
quantities, and which is fatal to the oyster in its early stages ; but this had to he done before the shores 
could bo turned to tlic purpose for which they were vrished. After this preliminary business had been accom¬ 
plished, the rocks had to be blasted in order to find stones for the construction of the pare walls ; then these 
had to be built, and the pares had to be stocked with breeding oysters, &c. Some gentlemen from the island 
of Jersey, who visited He, report that an incredible quantity of oysters had been produced on that shore, which 
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