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Rh market from the Holstein banks, 1,045,000 are destroyed or die. By putting down suitable “cultch” or “stools” immense quantities of the wandering fry may be induced to settle, and are thus saved. As a rule the natural beds occupy most of the suitable space in their own vicinity. Unoccupied territory may, however, be prepared for the reception of new beds, by spreading sand, gravel and shells over muddy bottoms, or, indeed, beds may be kept up in locations for permanent natural beds, by putting down mature oysters and cultch just before the time of breeding, thus giving the young a chance to fix themselves before the currents and enemies have had time to accomplish much in the way of destruction.

The collection of oyster spat upon artificial stools has been practised from time immemorial. As early as the 7th century, and probably before, the Romans practised a kind of oyster culture in Lake Avernus, which still survives to the present day in Lake Fusaro. Piles of rocks are made on the muddy bottoms of these salt-water lakes, and around these are arranged circles of stakes, to which are often attached bundles of twigs. Breeding oysters are piled upon the rookeries, and their young become attached to the stakes and twigs provided for their reception, where they are allowed to remain until ready for use, when they are plucked off and sent to the market. A similar though ruder device is used in the Poquonock river in Connecticut. Birch trees are thrown into the water near a natural bed of oysters, and the trunks and twigs become covered with spat; the trees are then dragged out upon the shore by oxen, and the young fry are broken off and laid down in the shallows to increase in size. In 1858 the methods of the Italian lakes were repeated at St Brieuc under the direction of Professor P. Coste, and from these experiments the art of artificial breeding as practised in France has been developed. There is, however, a marked distinction between oyster-culture and oyster-breeding.

In considering the oyster-culture in France it is necessary to distinguish the centres of production from the centres of rearing or fattening. The chief centres or regions of oyster production are two, (1) Arcachon, (2) Brittany. The basin of Arcachon has an area of about 38,000 acres at high water, and only about 15,000 acres are under water at low tide. The water is salter than the sea. At the beginning of the 19th century there were only natural oyster beds in the basin, and these produced 75 million oysters per annum. But in the middle of the century the natural beds had been almost exhausted and the system of government control, letting “parks” to private tenants, and artificial cultivation was instituted. Certain beds in the basin are reserved and kept under government control. Cultch is placed upon them every year, and gathering of oysters upon them is allowed only at intervals of two or more years, when the authority thinks they are sufficiently stocked to permit of it. These beds supply spat for the private cultivators. The latter collect the spat on tiles: these are made of earthenware and concave on one side. One of the most important points in the system is the coating of the tiles with lime. It is necessary to detach the young oysters from the tiles when they are nearly a year old (détroquage): this could not be done without destroying the oysters if they were attached directly to the surface of the tile. The coating of lime or mortar is soft and brittle, and consequently the young oysters can easily be detached with a stout knife. The method of liming the tiles (chaulage) consists in dipping them into a liquid mixture of lime and water. Sometimes lime only is used, sometimes equal quantities of lime and sand, or lime and mud. Often it is necessary to repeat the dipping, and for the second coat hydraulic lime may be employed.

The tiles coated with lime are set out on the shore near the low-water mark of spring tides, at the beginning of the spatting season. This is earlier in the south of France than in England: at Arcachon the collectors are put in position about the middle of June. Various methods are adopted for keeping the tiles in place and for arranging them in the position most favourable to the collection of spat. At Arcachon they are arranged in piles each layer being transverse to the one below, so that the space formed by the concavity of the tile is kept open. A wooden frame-work often surrounds the heap of tiles to prevent them being scattered by the waves.

In the following season, about April, the young oysters, then from to 1 in. in diameter, are separated or détroqués. They may then be placed in oyster cases (caisses ostréophiles) or in shallow ponds (claires) made on the fore-shore. The cases are about 8 in. deep, made with a wooden frame-work, and galvanized wire netting top and bottom, the lid being hinged. These cases about 8 ft. by 4 ft. in dimensions are fixed on the fore-shore by means of short posts driven into the ground, so that they are raised about 9 in. or 1 ft. from the latter. The young oysters grow rapidly in these cases, and have to be thinned out as they grow larger. When they have been in the boxes a year they are large enough to be placed in the claires or simply scattered along the fore-shore.

In Brittany the chief seat of oyster production is the gulf of Morbihan, where the estuaries of numerous small rivers furnish fore-shores suitable to the industry. Here the prevalence of mud is one of the chief obstacles, and for this reason the tile-collectors are usually fastened together by wire and suspended to posts (tuiles en bouquets). The collectors are not set out before the middle of July. The natural beds from which the supply of spat is derived are reserved, but apparently are insufficiently protected, so that much poaching goes on.

These two regions of production, Arcachon and Morbihan supply young oysters for “relaying,” i.e. rearing, not only to numerous places on the coast of France, but also to England, Ireland and elsewhere. Among rearing districts Marennes and La Tremblade are specially celebrated on account of the extensive system of claires or oyster ponds, in which the green oysters so much prized in Paris are produced. The irrigation of the claires is entirely under control, and the claires undergo a special preparation for the production of the green oysters, whose colour seems to be derived from a species of Diatom which abounds in the claires.

In Holland the French system of oyster-culture is followed in the estuary of the Scheldt, with some modifications in detail. The tiles used are flat and heavy, and are placed on the foreshores in an oblique position resting on their edges and against each other. The tiles with the young oysters on them are placed in enclosures during the winter, and détroquage is carried out in the following summer.

In England the use of tiles has been tried on various occasions, in Cornwall on the river Fal, at Hayling Island and in Essex, but has nowhere become permanently established. The reasons for this are that the fall of spat is not usually very abundant, and the kind of labour required cannot be obtained at a sufficiently cheap rate. In many places oysters are simply imported from France and Holland and laid down to grow, or are obtained by dredging from open grounds. At Whitstable most of the stock is thus obtained, but cultch (i.e. dead shells) is here and elsewhere scattered over the ground to serve for the attachment of spat. The use of cultch as collector is a very ancient practice in England, and is still almost universally maintained. In the estuaries of Essex there are many private or semi-private oyster fisheries, where the method of culture is to dredge up the oysters in autumn and place them in pits, where they are sorted out, and the suitable ones are selected for the market. Just before the close season the young oysters and all the rest that remain are scattered over the beds again, with quantities of cultch, and in many cases the fishery is maintained by the local fall of spat, without importation. In some places where the ground is suitable cultch is spread over the foreshores also to collect spat. The genuine English “native” is produced in its greatest perfection in the Essex fisheries, and is probably the highest priced oyster in the world.

In addition to the literature quoted see also the following: Rapport sur les recherches concernant l’huître et l’ostréiculture publié par la Commission de la Société Néerlandaise de Zoologie (Leiden, 1883–1884); P. Brocchi, Traité de l’ostréiculture (Paris, 1883); Bashford Dean, European Oyster Culture, Bulletin U.S. Fish Commission, vol. x. for 1890, vol. xi. for 1891; J. T. Cunningham, Report of the Lecturer on Fishery Subjects, in Report of Technical Instruction Committee of Cornwall (1899, 1900).

 OYSTER BAY, a township of Nassau (formerly of Queens) county. New York, on Long Island, about 25 m. E.N.E. of Long Island City. Pop. (1890) 13,870, (1900) 16,334; (1910 census) 21,802. The township reaches from N. to S. across the island (here about 20 m. wide) in the shape of a rough wedge, the larger end being on Long Island Sound at the N.; on the northern shore is the tripartite Oyster Bay, whose western arm is Mill Neck creek, whose central branch is Oyster Bay harbor, and whose easternmost arm, called Cold Spring harbor, separates the township of Oyster Bay from the township of Huntington. On the south side of the township is South Oyster bay, immediately east of the main body of the Great South bay; and between South Oyster Bay and the ocean lie several island beaches, the smaller and northernmost ones being marshy, and the southern, Jones or Seaford beach, being sandy and having on the ocean side the Zach’s inlet and Jones Beach life-saving stations. The township is served by four branches of the Long Island railway; the Oyster Bay branch of the north shore to the village of Sea Cliff (incorporated in 1883; pop. 1910, 1694), on the E. side of Hempstead harbor, to Glen Cove, a large unincorporated village, immediately N.E. of Sea Cliff, to Locust Valley and to Mill Neck farther E., and to the village of Oyster Bay, the terminus of the branch, on Oyster Bay harbor; the Wading