The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-20 00:00:00

The Culture of Oysters,

A very interesting lecture on " Oyster Culture" was
read on Wednesday evening at the Society of Arts by Mr
James Lowe, joint secretary to the Acclimatization Society
of Great Britain—Mr W. Hawes in the chair. The lec-
turer commenced by stating that the art of oyster culture
was by no means a new one, having been carried on with
perfect success by the inhabitants of the borders of Lake
Fusaro, in Italy, from the time of the Romans to the pre-
sent day, Fifteen years ago M. de Quatrefages, the emi-
nent French naturalist, called the attention of the Academie
des Sciences to the depreciation and abandonment of
many oyster beds on the shores of the Channel. In 1858
the gradual increase in the price of oysters in France, conse-
quent on their growing scarcity, attracted the attention of
M. Coste, the celebrated pisciculturist, and since that time
several beds on the coast Brittany and elsewhere have been
entirely renewed through the exertions of the gentleman. In
this country the oyster was also becoming scarcer and scarcer
every day, having doubled in price during the last few years
and if some remedy was not speedily found these delicious
bivalves would soon become extinct. Luckily, the shores of
the British islands afforded numberless localities in which
oyster culture could be carried on with ease and success.
The method adopted by the French cultivators as carried on
on the foreshores on that part of the shore lying betwepn
high and low water mark was thus described :—The shore is
divided into allotments by means of low walls, each allot•
went being called a park, in which are placed tiles covered
with old shells, bits of rock, &c., fixed in their places by
cement. It is upon these that the spawn, or spat, of the
oyster collects and attaches itself. Besides these parks, there
are etalges, or places on the forshore where the oysters are
laid down to fatten for market ; claires, or enclosures, having
similar objects, and vivisrs, or vivaria, where the oysters

are stored. The conditions necessary to insure success are
few. A fine sheltered shore free from weeds and muscles,
and with just a little but not too much mud, is best
fitted for an oyster park. For large operations in a consi-
derable depth of water, like that carried on so suoeessfully
by M. Coate when he re-stocked the bay of St. Brieue,
nothing is better than large fascines of branches bound to-
gether with a thin chain of galvanized iron wire and sunk
by means of a heavy stone, For small parks on the
foreshore the tiles already spoken of are used, which
are the invention of Dr. Kemmerer, the able and zealous
oyster-culturist of the Isle de Rue. Mr. Lowe then gave
an account of the life of an oyster from the spat to the fat-
tened native, from which it appears that although each
oyster produces spawn amounting to millions of individuals,
yet hardly half-a-dozen of them ever arrive at maturity.
Oyster culture has already taken firm root in the island
of Guernsey in several localities pointed out by Mr. Lowe
as particularly adapted to the purpose while visiting the
island about three years since, and preparations are now
being made at Prittlewell, between Southend and Shoebury-
ness, for the establishment of oyster-parks on the French
principle by the Fish and Oyster Culture Company. The
company has already laid down 1,500 bushels of full-grown
oysters, which have been spread over about five acres of
ground in such a way as to leave room for the placing of
50,000 Kemmerera collecting tiles. It is calculated that if
each tile collects only 10 spat, the crop secured in one year
will amount to 500,000 oysters, the value of which will be
£l,OOO. Mr. Lowe then alluded to the legal difficulties
standing in the way of oyster culture. The foreshore be-