The Sun.
London, England, 1866-09-19 00:00:00

The Food Pis'

France.

(From the Times.)

The very latest novelty in French oyster culture
is the introduction by Mdlle. Sarah Felix, the sister
of the late Madame Rachel, of the American horse-
shoe oyster. This lady is an enthusiastic ostreocul-
turist, and she has a suite of packs near Havre,
which are said to be very profitable. Many of Mdlle.
Felix's countrymen have of late years taken to oyster
farming, and in a short time the foreshores of France
will be crowded with oyster beds, when one of the
greatest industries of that country will assuredly be
the breeding and fattening of that popular shell fish.
The expense of rearing oysters is so trifling, and the
returns so large, that thousands of the seafaring
people have gone into the business, and many of the
inland vine growers and general farmers have re-
moved to the coast in order to try their luck at this
new industry. There is a great demand for the oyster
in all parts of France, and as the mollusk may be
kept out of the water for a few days without any
harm, or can be kept; in tanks and be artificially fed
till such time as it is wanted for table purposes, a
number of fishermen who could not find an outlet
for either their round or flat fish in consequence of
• the rapid transit required to insure their fish being
fresh on arrival at the market, have within a year or,
two taken to the rearing and fattening of oysters.
There are few places now on the shores of France
where oyster culture is not carried on in some one
of its varied phases ; there are either viviers for
keeping them alive till called for, pares for breed-
ing them in, claires for fattening them, or pits
for greening them. And the French Government,
with a view to promote so laudable an industry, has
established model beds on various parts of the coast,
in order to teach practically the art of oyster farming.
As well as being practically useful in a commercial
sense, these model beds have been of great use to
M. Coste and other French naturalists, by allowing
them to determine the exact age at uhich the oyster
becomes reproductive, without which knowledge no
animal, sea or land, can be profitably bred. The
French pare system also admits of the proper study
of the spat mystery, which is now attracting the
gravest attention of all interested in the natural and
economic history of the oyster. As an example of
the spat difficulty, it may be mentioned that while
in the basin of Arcachon the spat has never been
known to fail, yet around the Ile de Re the fall for
these some years back has been very intermittent,
as it has also been on the English beds. In the
sheltered basin of Arcachon the plentiful spatting
may be accounted for on the principle that the spat
has nowhere else to go—it must;fall within the basin.
In an open expanse of sea, it is different ; the spat
may be carried away to great distances by tidal in-
fluence, or a sharp breeze upon the water may waft
the oyster seed away for many a long mile. Every
bed has its own time for spatting; thus one division
of the Re beds may be spatting on a fine warm day,
when the sea is like glass, so that the spat cannot
fail to fall ; while, on another portion of the island,
the spat may fall on a windy day, be thus left to the
tender mercy of a fiercely receding tide, and so be
lost, or fall, mayhap, on inaccessible rocks, a long
way from the shore. On the Isle of Oleron, which
supplies the green oyster breeders of Marennes with
such large quantities, it is quite certain that in the
course of the summer a friendly wave will waftlarge
quantities of spat into the artificial pares, when it is
known that the oysters in these pares have not
spawned. Where does this foreign spat come from ?
The men say it comes off some of the natural beds
of the adjoining sea —is driven in by the tide, and
finds a welcome resting place on the artificial re-
ceivers of their pares. It is altogether an erroneous
idea to suppose that there are some seasons when
the oyster does not spat because of the cold wea-
ther, &c. Some of the pares had spatted at Ar-
cachon this year in very ungenial weather. The
spatting of the oyster does not depend on the
weather at all, but the destination of the spat
does, because if the tiny seedling oyster does not
fall on propitious ground it is lost for ever.
New oyster beds are often discovered in
places where it is certain oysters did not exist in
previous years—how came they then to be formed ?
The spat must have been blown upon that ground
by the ill wind that carried it away from the spot
where it was expected to fall. If the spat excluded
by the large quantity of oysters known to be stocked
in the pares at Whitstable, in Kent, the home of the
native, were always to fall on the cultch of Whit-
stable, instead of on the adjoining flats and else-
where, the company would soon become enormously
wealthy. At present one of the largest items of
their annual expenditure is for brood to be fattened
for the market. This brood they buy everywhere,
in order to keep the London oyster taverns con-
stantly stocked with natives.
The difference between French and English oyster
farming is not much, but the little that there is is of
great importance in the economy of a large oyster
farm. The endeavour of the French is to obtain spat
or brood without purchase; hitherto this has not
been the case in England; the dredgermen are but
too willing to pay for brood when it can be obtained,
but of late years, in consequence of a paucity of spat,
it has become scarce and ill to get. The new oyster
farms which have been laid down in England of late
years are all on the French plan, and already we are
bearing of their success, spat having fallen upon
some of them in great plenty. In the Firth of Forth
oyster beds no pains are taken to protect the oyster,
the grounds are never overhauled or worked, and
the brood is sold by the hogshead to all and sundry
who will come and buy it; the result, as may be ex-
pected, is that in Edinburgh oysters are scarce, are
also small in size, and dear. While the men of Whit-
stable have become rich by their thrift the men of
Newhaven have become poor from consenting to the
spoliation of their oyster beds, which arc naturally
the finest in the world. They have at length killed
the goose for the sake of the golden egg.
Any attempt to find out the figures pertaining to
the annual oyster commerce of France is generally
abortive. No one knows exactly what these figures
are, but of course every man forms his own opinion.
An oyster merchant of Rochelle doing business with
the growers of the adjacent islands of Oleron and
Re will say £250,000 per annum,
while a Bordeaux
will give figures repre-
shipper, with large ideas,
Renting four times that sum. It •is unquestionable
that there is an immense oyster business done in
France. Paris alone requires at present a daily
supply that in the course of the season is said to
amount to 100,000,000, and the large provincial
towns all consume in proportion. Countless num-
bers are besides exported, cured, prepared, and
pickled. Official figures state that in 1862 the three
factors appointed by the Government for the sale of
oysters in the grand market disposed of 67,836,900,
being an increase of 12i millions on the preceding
year. We are constantly coming across paragraphs
in the provincial newspapers of France about the
oyster trade. Lately the Phare de la Manche told'
us that Paris now required ten times as many
Oysters as in 1856, and that they were now double
the price ; further that 6,000 women get a living
during the oyster season in opening oysters. The
same
Paper also gave us the astonishing intelligence
that huitres de la ilfanche were the most esteemed in
Paris, that the green oysters of Marennes were not
DOW in demand, except for exportation, and that
the Ostend pitted oysters had taken their place. It
is certain that Ostend furnishes to Paris about three
million oysters per annum ; there are official figures
to that effect. There las been also published a
cluster of reliable figures about the oyster grounds
of Arcachon, in which it is stated that the oyster
grounds of the basin, including the
royal parks on
either side of the bank of La Billion, occupy space
A
to the extent of 1,200 acres. stock of over two
millions of breeding oysters was gradually laid
down in the royal grounds, and there yielded
an enormous amount of spat. A portion of the
two millions—viz., 500,000, laid down in 1863,
is said to have yielded young to the extent of seven
millions ! If this statement be correct as to a
fortieth part of the mother stock, what would the
total yield be ? It would in fact be too enormous
for figures to express it.
Everybody has heard about the immense fecun-
dity of the oyster, and to yield such supplies as are
indicated by the above figures the animal would
require to be very prolific. The writer has seen a
little branch taken from an artificial bed, which

contained a few thousands, and he has seen many
common tiles with hundreds of oysters on each.
The Whitstable of France is on the Ile de R 6, where
may be seen a few thousand oyster parts and also a
few hundred claires, or fattening ponds, and hundreds
of thousands of oysters in all stages of growth, from
the size of a pin's head to a crown piece. One of
the many difficulties which the French oyster-growers
have had to solve is the construction of a proper
medium for the reception of the spat. Every kind
of material has been tried, branches of trees, logs of
wood, fragments of rock, and now tiles made of clay
are being extensively used, and with the greatest
possible success. At Arcachon a hive of an ingeni-
ous kind, that is, a suite of small boxes filled with
gravel, and contained in a larger box, was tried, and
was found to suit very well ; the best of all bottoms
could be constructed in the pares by the filling into
them of the numerous shell middens that are to be
found in some of the fishing places.
The formation of new pares and claires still goes
on on the French seaboard, new concessions of ground
for that purpose being frequently made, and a tour
to most of the fishing places of interest gives the
idea of the great future Health to be obtained from
this source, more especially when the natural and
economic history of the oyster comes to be more
thoroughly known than it is at present.
The French people also grow mussels, on what is
now known as the artificial plan. About four miles
from Rochelle there may be seen a wonderful mussel
farm that has been profitably cultivated for hundreds
of years. The mussels are sold largely for food, and
afford a good living to the people who cultivate
them. The British fishermen might obtain a hint
from the mussel farm of Aiguillon and grow their
own bait, which is scarce and dear. The mussels
are grown on frames of basket-work, called bouchots,
and are larger and of finer flavour than the natural
mussel.

There is nothing that is very new to say about
the fresh-water fisheries of France. Huningue,
which has been already described, still con-
tinues to fulfil its mission, by sending out to the
barren rivers of France sufficient fish eggs for the
re-stocking of many of them ; and, it is satisfactory
to know, with good results, many of the French
rivers, which a year or two ago were totally desti-
tute of fish, are being now wonderfully stocked. A
large number of district piscicultural reports have
been contributed to the manuscript department of
the Arcachon Exposition, and all of them were of
the most favourable character, giving full details of
the work done and the different kinds of fish that
had been manipulated for piscicultural purposes,
some of which were common enough, as carp, perch,
&c. In a Catholic country like France, where there
is an urgent demand for fish as fast-day food, it may
be necessary to cultivate the very commonest fishes ;
but in England, where the people are more fastidiOus

about their fish diet, it would not be profitable to

cultivate any other fish than that venison of the
waters—the salmon.

THE PUBLIC HEALTH:

(From the Registrar-General's Return.)
In the week that ended on Saturday, Sept. 15, the
births registered in London and 12 other large towns
of the United Kingdom were 4,261; the deaths re-
gistered 3,099. The annual rate of mortality was
26 per 1,000 persons living.
In London the births of 1,080 boy's and 1,035
girls, in all 2,115 children, were registered in the
week. In the corresponding weeks of ten years
1856-65 the average number, corrected for increase
of population, was 1,947.
The deaths registered in London during the week
were 1,371. It was the 37th week of the year, and
the average number of deaths for that week is,
with a correction for increase of population, 1,218.
The deaths in the present return exceed the esti-
mated number by 153. This number is exceeded by
the deaths in the week from cholera.
The first two weeks of September have hitherto
been noted in cholera epidemics ; in the first week
of September, 1849, no less than 2,026 personsdied
of cholera; in the first week of September, 1854,
the deaths by the same disease were 2,050. The
deaths by cholera in the second ►veek of the same
years fell to 1,682 and 1,549. In 1866 we have
been less unfortunate; the deaths sprang up with
unexampled rapidity, threatening all London with
devastation, and then less suddenly, but decisively,
subsided. The deaths by cholera in the first two
weeks of September were 157 and 182. 132 and
110 persons died in the same weeks by diarrhoea.
Of the deaths by cholera, 10 occurred in the West
districts, 27 in the North, 20 in the Central, 77 in
the East, and 48 in the South districts. To insure
its rapid decline the utmost vigilance is required on
the part of the people, the health officers, and the
Board of Works.
It is very desirable to know what proceedings
have been taken by the authorities, not only in
drawing up regulations, but in seeing to their execu-
tion. The health officers of London have supplied
the Registrar-General with some information having
an immediate practical bearing.
The annual rate of mortality last week was 23
per 1,000 in London, 19 in Edinburgh, and 30 in
Dublin; 18 in Bristol, 19 in Birmingham, 55 in
Liverpool, 28 in Manchester, 26 in Salford, 22 in
Sheffield, 29 in Leeds, 20 in Hull, 31 in Newcastle-
upon-Tyne, and 26 in Glasgow. The rate in
Vienna was 38 per 1,000 during the week ending
the Bth inst., when the mean temperature was 6.1
degrees Fahrenheit higher than in the same week in
London, where the rate was 23 per 1,000.
The 513 deaths in Liverpool last week showed an
increase of 20, and those referred to cholera, which
in the three previous weeks had been 146, 225, and
145, rose again last week to 182, while the fatal
cases of diarrhoea fell from 84 to 51. The annual
rate of mortality in this borough during the past 11
weeks of the current quarter has averaged 50.7 per
1,000 persons living. In Dublin, of the 181 deaths
last week, 55 resulted from cholera ; and in Vienna
during the week ending the Bth inst. the fatal cases
of this disease had increased to 64 in the previous
week to 107.

At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the mean
I height of the barometer in the week was 29.544 in.
The barometrical reading decreased from 29.80 in.
on Wednesday to 29.29 in. on Friday. The mean
temperature of the air in the week was 56.7 deg.,
which is 0.7 deg. below the average of the same
wlxeoenkdioanns.soaytuehraedrsa lo
y(w.aessTt
determined
entire range by Mr. Glaisher).
....he highest day temperature was 70.2 deg., on
y T
nighttempernagte tempera-
;uroewas47.
4
tduerge" in the weekgbt7teams,ptelLetreefroereeo,f 2th2e-Bwdateegr.
of
fTthhee
mean of the hies
Thames was 60 2 deg. ; that of the lowest was 59.6
.
deg. The difference between the mean dew-point
temperature and air temperature was 6.6 deg. The
f
t
mean degree of humidity of the air was
79,complete
saturation being represented by 100. Rain
the amount of 0.87 in., half of which fell on Fridaell
y°
On Tuesday rain was measured at Eccles to the.
amount of 0.76 in., and at Manchester to 0.65 in. ;
and at Clifton to the amount of 0.62 in. on Friday.
The mist was observed on every day except Sun-
day. The wind blew generally from the south-
west. At Liverpool on Tuesday, at 1 24 p.m., a
pressure of 281 b. on the square foot was recorded.

THE RISE AND DECLINE OF CHOLERA

IN LONDON.

1 (From a Supplement to the Registrar-General's Report.)
Cholera has been very unequally distributed over
London ; it has been in every district, but it is only
in the field of one water company that the violence
of the epidemic recalled the ravages of 1849 and
1854, when nearly the whole of the water was un-
filtered, and when much of it was drawn from parts
of the Thames and its tributaries polluted with sew-
age. The cholera matter was in those years diffused
over London in large quantities, and the mortality
pursued its course only checked by treatment of
diarrhoaa in the early state of the malady.
The Lambeth and Southwark companies in 1849
could not improve their water supply ; the ground
was undrained ; the pumps were polluted ; and the
epidemic pursued its natural course. It first appeared
in the autumn of 1848, subsided partiall to break
out again in the summer of 1849,
when y week after
week it grew more fatal, until in the first week of i
Sept. it killed, reckoning diarrheea 2,298 persons. The Lambeth water was drawn in' 1853-4 from a 1