8 
7. Tlio breeding and fattening of oysters are as distinct as the breeding and fattening of cattle. 
In Franco tbc breeding is carried on in and the fattening in “ claires," which processes we will 
hereafter explain. In England there are many persons and Companies who never breed any oysters, 
but who do a very considerable business in buying spat, brood and ware, that is, young oysters one, two, 
and three years old, which they put in their ladings ” or fattening beds to grow and fatten. The 
collecting of these very young oysters at the low tides gives employment to many persons, and the spat 
they collect is matured into excellent food which would otherwise be lost. 
ilTr. G, a member of the Whitstable Company, said, in the evidence he gave before the 
Select Committee of the House of Commons (187G), (to which we have alluded) he does not think his 
Company breeds a fifth of the oysters it sells. It has imported oysters during the thirty-five years he 
has been connected with it. If it were prevented from importing oysters from other grounds, it would 
bring the ‘Whitstable Company to an end. 
Mr. II. S. Qoodg^ solicitor and clerk to the Colchester Oyster Fishery Company, said, in the 
evidence he gave before the said Committee, the Colne and the Elackwater fisheries join on to each other. 
The former is good fattening, and the latter good breeding ground. If the Colne Company had not been 
able to purchase brood, the fishery must have entirely failed. During the five years 1871 to 1875, the 
Colne Company have been supplied with brood at a cost of £1G,13S. He said, what astonishes any one 
who looks at the map and sees where the two rivci’s join (Colne and Blackwatcr), that in the former there 
is a large deposit of large oysters and no brood, and in the Blackwater few lai*ge oysters and plenty of 
brood. 
Mr. Tlolcy oyster merchant, gave the following evidence before the said Committee :—Theirs is a 
growing and fattening process; they do not profess to be breeders; they never get any spat upon 
fattening grounds —such a thing was never known to bo— the oldest seiwant they have never heard of 
such a thing. They put down small oysters, and their profit consists in the growth which they make. 
If they were to touch them in the summer months, they would disturb the beautiful shell growth that is 
being made, w'hich is very tliin. It is not at all injurious to remove brood. Oysters should be moved, 
just as anything in vegetation is transplanted. Oysters do not begin to thrive and fatten until they are 
moved. They import oysters from Ireland and all parts, and keep Falmouth as a sort of half-way house 
from Ireland. Oysters will not fatten at Falmouth; they arc very poor, starvcd-looking things, and have 
not that nice fatness th(^ acquire afterwards. They bring oysters into the Thames and Medway for the 
purjiosc of fattening them. The best fattening beds arc supposed to be creeks and inland waters. 
Mr. G. W. Harding gave evidence before the said Select Committee: — Is Bailiff of the Lynn 
Oyster Fisheries, lie finds that the shallower the water the fatter the oysters arc, and the deeper the 
w'ater the poorer they arc. 
Jfr. F. Fennell gave evidence before the said Select Committee: — Ho said it is very rarely that on 
a fattening bed tlie spat is produced, and if so that it comes to anything. He thinks a fattening oyster 
is always fit for market, and breeding oysters are rarely found fat. A fattening ground is usually a 
small creek, with muddy banks, and the bed. is made in the middle with shells, upon which the oysters 
are laid. The fattening grounds arc more or less all artificial. He would not prohibit the sale of oysters 
from a private bed, unless it was necessary to do so, in oi-dcr to assist in carrying out some law, to 
enforce a close time on public beds; then he would stop consumption, but not for any other purpose. 
Tlie law of nature is more or less suspended, as regards oysters being sick, on artificial fattening grounds. 
He has often made a hearty lunch of oysters in summer, and certainly thinks they are really fit to eat. 
lie thinks the Committee has had evidence that only one oyster in ten, as a rule, spats, and all the rest 
would be lit to eat. 
ilTr. Jb/iW examined by the said Committee: — He has been thirty years connected with 
the Blackwater or Port Fisheries, where there arc 400 or 500 vessels employed dredging in that river. 
Ho believes it to be a good river for breeding and growing oysters, but not for maturing and fattening 
them. Ho dredges and sells the oysters he has caught to Companies and ])rivato indhiduals, to mature 
and fatten for the market. lie does not think it impoverishes the bed by carrying off the brood— ho 
thinks it is beneficial. 
Mr. Frederick Fangard, examined by the said Committee: — lie has been engaged in oyster culture 
and oyster dredging from twenty to thirty years. He works upon his private ground or “ layings,” 
which is about an aero and a half, and when he is not so employed he works upon the Blackwatcr. lie 
thinks, and indeed ho is sure, that the Blackwater is one of the most productive spatting grounds in the 
kingdom. IIo says, brood growing upon a nice clay bottom would fatten as much in one year as another 
would upon a stony bottom in two years. IIo has private (oyster) ground upon a creek running into 
Blackwatcr, and 300 fishermen belonging to Mersea and Tollesbury have ground like that. They certainly 
are valuable . 
Mr. 
