Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/120

 108 O Y 8 T E R 1875, $38,733 ; 1876, $99,012 ; 1877, 121,301 ; 1878, 254,815 ; 1879, $306,941 ; 1880, 366,403 ; 1881, 414,584 ; 1882, 372,111 ; 1883, 371,497. Holland. Since 1870 the beds in the province of Zealand have been greatly enriched by careful methods of culture and protection; and in 1881 the product amounted to 21,800,000 oysters, worth about 1,350,000 guilders. 1 About half the product of the Dutch oyster fishery is sent to England, and large quantities of the young oysters are laid down to fatten in the English oyster-beds. Germany. Germany has a small oyster industry on the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein. 2 According to Lindeman, the largest annual product of these beds has rarely exceeded 4,000,000 oysters. From 1859 to 1879 they were rented to a company in Flensburg for an annual payment of 80,000 marks. In 1879 the lease was trans ferred to a Hamburg firm, who paid for that year 163,000 marks. Italy. Oyster culture in Italy, according to Bouchon-Brandely, 3 is carried on in only one locality, Taranto, though small quan tities of natives are obtained from the Gulfs of Genoa and Naples, from the coasts of the Adriatic, and from the ponds of Corsica. The sea of Taranto is leased by the city to a company that pays an annual rent of 38,000 francs. The product of this body of water is estimated variously at from 6,000,000 to 10,000,000 oysters vearly. The entire annual product of Italy does not probably ex ceed 20,000,000 oysters, valued at about 40,000. Belgium. Oyster culture is carried on upon a small scale at Ostend. There being no native beds, the seed oysters are brought from England, a practice which, according to Lindeman, originated as early as 1765. The product probably does not exceed 10,000 bushels a year, and is consumed chiefly in Germany and Holland, though there is a small exportation. Spain. According to a recent report by Don Francisco Sola, there are forty-three establishments in Spain for the cultivation of oysters and other shell-fisheries. The amount of oysters annually produced is estimated at 167,673 kilogrammes (368,880 Ib), valued at 50,296 pesetas (about 2000). These are exported to Algiers, France, Portugal, and South America. Portugal. There appear to be no statistics for Portugal. Con siderable quantities of seed oysters are planted at present in the Day of Arcachon and elsewhere in France, and in England the Anglo-Portuguese oyster is apparently growing in favour. 4 Denmark. The very insignificant oyster fishery of Denmark has its seat chiefly in the Liimfjord and at Frederikshaven. All the oyster-beds, being Government property, are carefully protected by law. Statistics for late years are not accessible. In 1847 the product of the Frederikshaven beds was about 200,000 oysters ; but the yield of late years has been much smaller. The Liimfjord beds were dis covered about 1851. From 1876 to 1881 the Danish oyster fisheries were leased to a firm in Hamburg, which paid 240,000 kroner (13,000) as yearly rental. Russia. Grimm states that a specie s of oyster, Ostrea adriatica, is found in considerable numbers along the coast of the Crimea, and is the object of a considerable trade. Oysters brought from Theodosia cost in St Petersburg about 3s. sterling the score. Norway. The average value of the yield for the five years ending 1881 was 7600 kroner (420). The quantity produced in 18 81 was 267 hectolitres (735 bushels), valued at 7000 kroner (390). The industry is seated for the most part in the districts of southern Trondhjem and Jarlsberg, the product of the latter province being nearly half that of all Norway. Subjoined is a rough estimate of the total number of oysters obtained annually from the sea (North America, 5,572,000,000; Europe, 2,331,200,000): United States 5. ...5,550,000,000 Canada 22,000,000 France 680,400,000 Great Britain 1,600,000,000 Holland 21,800,000 Italy 20,000,000 Germany 4,000,000 Belgium 2,500,000 Spain 1,000,000 Portugal 800, 000 Denmark 200,000 Russia 250,000 Norway 250,000 1 Hubrecht, &quot;Oyster Culture and Oyster Fisheries of the Netherlands&quot; (conference paper, International Fisheries Exhibition) ; Hoek, &quot; Ueber Austernzucht in den Niederlanden &quot; (circular 2, Deutsche Fiseherei- Verein, 1879 ; translated in Report of the United States Fish Commis sion, part viii. pp. 1029-35). 2 Mobius, Die Auster und die Austernimrthschnft (1877, pp. 126 ; translated in Report of the United States Fish Commission, part viii. pp. 683-751). 3 Rapport au Ministre de V Instruction sur la pisciculture en France ft L Ostreiculture dans la Mediterranee (Paris, 1878) ; the portion relating to oyster culture in the Mediterranean is translated in the Report of the United States Fish Commission, part viii. pp. 907-28. 4 See Renaud, Notice sur V Huitre Porturjaise et Francaise cultivee dans la ttaie d Arcachon ; translated in the Report of the United States Fish Commission, part viii. pp. 931-41. 150 to 400. The oyster industry is rapidly passing from the hands of the fisherman into those of the oyster culturist. The oyster being sedentary, except for a few days in the earliest stages of its existence, is easily exterminated in any given locality ; since, although it may not be possible for the fishermen to rake up from the bottom every individual, wholesale methods of capture soon result in covering up or otherwise destroying the oyster banks or reefs, as the communities of oysters are technically termed. The main difference between the oyster industry of America and that of Europe lies in the fact that in Europe the native beds have long since been practically destroyed, perhaps not more than 6 or 7 per cent, of the oysters of Europe passing from the native beds directly into the hands of the consumer. It is probable that 60 to 75 per cent, are reared from the spat in artificial parks, the remainder having been laid down for a time to increase in size and flavour in shoal waters along the coasts. In the United States, on the other hand, from 30 to 40 per cent, are carried from the native beds directly to market. The oyster fishery is everywhere, except in localities where the natural beds are nearly exhausted, carried on in the most reckless manner, and in all directions oyster grounds are becoming deteriorated, and in some cases have been entirely destroyed. It remains to be seen whether the Government of the States will regulate the oyster fishery before it is too late, or will permit the destruction of these most important reservoirs of food. At present the oyster is one of the cheapest articles of diet in the United States ; and, though it can hardly be expected that the price of American oysters will always remain so low, still, taking into consideration the great wealth of the natural beds along the entire Atlantic coast, it seems certain that a moderate amount of protection will keep the price of seed oysters far below European rates, and that the immense stretches of submerged land especially suited for oyster planting may be utilized and made to produce an abundant harvest at much less cost than that which accompanies the complicated system of culture in vogue in France and Holland. The most elaborate system of oyster culture is that practised at Arcachon and elsewhere in France, and, to a limited extent since 1865, on the island of Hay ling, near Portsmouth, in England. The young oysters, having been collected in the breeding season upon tiles or hurdles, are laid down in artificial ponds, or in troughs, where the water is supplied to them at the discretion of their pro prietors. The oysters are thus kept under control like garden plants from the time they are laid down to that of delivery to commercial control. The numerous modifica tions of this system are discussed in various recent reports. 6 The simplest form of oyster culture is the preservation of the natural oyster-beds. Upon this, in fact, depends the whole future of the industry, since it is not probable that any system of artificial breeding can be devised which will render it possible to keep up a supply without at least occasional recourse to seed oysters produced under natural conditions. It is the opinion of almost all who have studied the subject that any natural bed may in time be destroyed by overfishing (perhaps not by removing all the oysters, but by breaking up the colonies, and delivering over the territory which they once occupied to other kinds of animals), by burying the breeding oysters, by covering 6 See especially the following English parliamentary papers : Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Present State of the Oyster Fisheries of France, England, and Ireland, 1870 ; Report of the Select Committee appointed to inquire what are the Reasons for the Present Scarcity of Oysters, &c., 1876 ; Report on the Principal Oyster Fisheries of France, with a short description of the System of Oyster Culture pursued at some of the most important places, &c., 1878.
 * On basis of 250 oysters to the bushel. The number varies from