The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-10-02 00:00:00

OUR OYSTER SUPPLIES:

Only a few months ago the public were being in-
dustriously told of the rehabilitation of the oyster,
which it was prophesied was again to be plentiful and
cheap. It is possible, we believe, as it has always
been, even in the dearest seasons, to obtain cheap
oysters of a kind—" commonets" and "Americans ;"
but another oyster season has just been inaugurated,
and '' natives" are as expensive as ever, recent quota-
tions at our great piscatorial Bourse putting the price
as high as 3s. per dozen. It was computed that at one
time from 720 to SOO millions of oysters were annually
consumed in London, while quite:as many were eaten
in the provinces. If we take the lowest of these com-
putations and estimate each oyster at the illustrative
price of one penny, the total sum indicated amounts
to a little over three millions sterling as the cost to the
consumers of their favourite dainty. As no official
statistics are taken of the oyster supply, the facts
and figures of the trade can only be guessed at
but that the consumption of these molluscs has
always been enormous, is a matter of common know-
ledge. As far back as 35 years two Mr. Mayhew was
able in his work on " London Labour and the London
Poor "to show that the yearly sale of oysters by the
London costeraiongers was 124 millions, and that
tSe total sale of oysters in the metropolis was close
upon 500 millions per annum. What the sales may
be at the present time we shall not venture to put
down in figures, but much higher prices being every-
where charged, the sale has fallen off somewhat
during the last seven or eight years. As a matter of
fact, indeed, oysters are really scarce; the Irish sup-
plies have fallen away to nothing, and the once pro-
ductive beds of the Firth of Forth, near Edinburgh,
do not now yield single qysters for the scores which
were obtained a quarter of a century since. The value
of the oysters dredged in Scotland last season has
been estimated by the Fishery Board at less than
£lOOO. With prices ruling two-thirds below what
can now be obtained, the value of the Sccttish oysters
dredged some 30 years since would be from £20,000
to £25,000. _ _

One oyster, it has been said, will seed an acre of
ground, and yet oysters are yearly becoming one of
the scarcest items of our harvest of the sea. Wonder-
ful results were at one time expected from the arti-
ficial culture of these bivalves, and numerous oyster
farms were formed in British waters in the hope that
success would attend the operations of the oyster
farmers. Very few of the artificial beds proved re-
munerative, and most of them have been long since
abandoned, although oyster culture is quite prac-
ticable, and on the shores of France has become a
great industry. The spat of the breeding oyster
is easily collected by various apearatus of a
simple kind, and the spat being obtained
the rest is easy enough. At Arcachon, on
the French coast, and at various other places in
France, oyster farming is carried on with great suc-
cess, the molluscs beiug grown from the spat in
hundreds of thousands. In the oyster-cultural basin
of Auray as many as 33 millions of oysters have been
gatherec: for exportation in one year. The shell fish
produced are the result of petite culture. Some of
those engaged in the trade gather and grow the spat
till it has attained the size of about a shilling, when I
it is sold to those who fatten the oysters for the
market. In all its stages of growth, from the time it
is about the size of a threepenny bit, the oyster is
tended with minute care, no time bestowed upon it
being considered wasted. Individual molluscs are
seen to, and thousands will be examined in
the course of a day by one of the oyster-
growing families living on the Auray
or some of its tributaries. The spat from the spawn-
ing oysters is collected on branches or small logs of
wood, or is allowed to fall on a bottom of old shells
carefully deposited for the purpose ; it is also
collected on tiles, covered with a thick coating of
cement, which, along with the oysters whizla have
adhered to it, can be torn off and laid down in the
fattening pits, and the tile being recoated with
cement can be again used to obtain further s•applies of
spat. In this way five or six hundred oysters can be
grown at the cost of two or three shillings.
These plans of the French oyster-culturists have
been tried at home, but have not succeeded to an ex-
tent that would render them profitable; but we have
in our English waters a large area of bottom which
has been successfully devoted to the cultivation of
oysters. " Natives " all come from Whitstable, which
is the seat of the "happy fishing grounds." These
oysters are sent to market by a company of co-
operators who conduet their business with much
method. The plan adopted at Whitstable is to buy
small oysters from all and sundry who have such for
sale, and to lay them down on the company's
grounds till their beards be grown, at which time
they become fit for the London market. The differ-
ence between the price paid for the small oysters
and the money obtained for them when they are full
grown is the profit made by these astute sea-farmers,
to be one of whom means having very little work to do
and good pay for doing it—probably £l2O per annum.
There is only one way to attain such a position ; you
must be born into the Corporation and succeed your
father; you cannot buy in, or be elected a member.
Some idea of the business transacted by the Whit-
stable dredgers may be derived from the fact that a
sum of .£30,000 has in one or two years been paid for
"brood," in order to replenish and keep up the stock
of the far-famed "natives." The " brood "is collected
from free ground, and is sold by those who collect it to
the Whitstable dredgers; in four years' time the
"brood "will be saleable, and for what cost only a few
shillings there will be demanded eight or ten pounds
sterling. Much pains is taken in keeping the Whit-
table oyster ground free from enemies, all that are
found being at once destroyed. No more oysters are
dredged from day to day than are required; the value
of the stock on hand is sometimes as high as £200,000.
No finer oysters than those of Whitstable come to
market. It is hoped that in time the discovery of
some natural beds will help to augment the national
supply, which is at present largely aided by importa-
tions from America. If we are ever able to rehabili-
tate the oyster in its abundance, we must take care
not to over-dredge it. The French are able to give us
a lesson in this respect; the period during which
oysters may be gathered is greatly restricted, and the
consequence is that there is always a large breeding
stock to give birth to the oysters of the future.