And risq’d the living morsel down his throat.”
There were halcyon days in England once, when oysters were to be procured at 8d. the bushel. Now it costs exactly that amount before a bushel, brought up the Thames, can even be exposed for sale at Billingsgate (4d. porterage, 4d. market toll), and prime Whitstable natives average from 3½d. to 4d. each. The principal causes of this rise in prices, apart from the increased demand, are (1) over-dredging; (2) ignorant cultivation, and to these may be added (3) the effect of bad seasons in destroying young oysters, or preventing the spat from maturing. Our own principal beds are those at Whitstable, Rochester, Colchester, Milton (famous for its ‘melting’ natives), Faversham, Queenborough, Burnham, Poole, and Carlingford in Co. Down, and Newhaven, near Edinburgh.
The oyster-farms at Whitstable, public and private, extend over an area of more than 27 square miles. The principal of these is a kind of joint-stock company, with no other privilege of entrance except birth as a free dredgeman of the town. When a holder dies, his interest dies with him. Twelve directors, known as “the Jury,” manage the affairs of the company, which finds employment for several thousand people, and sometimes turns over as much as £200,000 a year. The term ‘Natives,’ as applied to these Whitstable or to other English oysters, requires a word of explanation. A ‘Native’ oyster is simply an oyster which has been bred on or near the Thames estuary, but very probably it may be developed from a brood which came from Scotland or some other place at a distance. For some unexplained reason, oysters bred on the London clay acquire a greater delicacy of flavour than elsewhere. The company pay large sums for brood to stock their own grounds, since there can be no certainty that the spat from their own oysters will fall favourably, or even within their own domains at all. Besides purchases from other beds, the parks are largely stocked with small oysters picked up along the coast or dredged from grounds public to all, sometimes as much as 50s. a bushel being paid for the best brood. It is probably this system of transplanting, combined with systematic working of the beds, which has made the Whitstable oyster so excellent both as to quality and quantity of flesh. The whole surface of the ‘layings’ is explored every year by the dredge, successive portions of the ground being gone over in regular rotation, and every provision being made for the well-being of the crop, and the destruction of their enemies. For three days of every week the men dredge for ‘planting,’ i.e. for the transference of suitable specimens from one place to another, the separation of adhering shells, the removal of odd valves and of every kind of refuse, and the killing off of dangerous foes. On the other three days they dredge for the market, taking care only to lift such a number as will match the demand.
The Colne beds are natural beds, as opposed to the majority of the great working beds, which are artificial. They are the property of the town of Colchester, which appoints a water-bailiff to manage the concern. Under his direction is a jury of twelve, who regulate the times of dredging, the price at which sales are to be made, and are generally responsible for the practical working of the trade. Here, and at Faversham, Queenborough, Rochester, and other places, ‘natives’ are grown which rival those of Whitstable.
There can be no question, however, that the cultivation of oysters by the French is far more complete and efficient than our own, and has reached a higher degree of scientific perfection combined with economy and solid profits. And yet, between 40 and 50 years ago, the French beds were utterly exhausted and unproductive, and showed every sign of failure and decay. It was in 1858 that the celebrated beds on the Ile de Ré, near Rochelle, were first started. Their originator was a certain shrewd stone-mason, by name Boeuf. He determined to try, entirely on his own account, whether oysters could not be made to grow on the long muddy fore-shore which is left by the ebb of the tide. Accordingly, he constructed with his own hands a small basin enclosed by a low wall, and placed at the bottom a number of stones picked out of the surrounding mud, stocking his ‘parc’ with a few bushels of healthy young brood. The experiment was entirely successful, in spite of the jeers of his neighbours, and Boeuf’s profits, which soon began to mount up at an astonishing rate, induced others to start similar or more extensive farms for themselves. The movement spread rapidly, and in a few years a stretch of miles of unproductive mud banks was converted into the seat of a most prosperous industry. The general interests of the trade appear to be regulated in a similar manner to that at Whitstable; delegates are appointed by the various communities to watch over the business as a whole, while questions affecting the well-being of oyster-culture are discussed in a sort of representative assembly.
At the same time as Boeuf was planting his first oysters on the shores of the Ile de Ré, M. Coste had been reporting to the French government in favour of such a system of ostreiculture as was then practised by the Italians in the old classic Lakes Avernus and Lucrinus. The principle there adopted was to prevent, as far as possible, the escape of the spat from the ground at the time when it is first emitted by the breeding oyster. Stakes and fascines of wood were placed in such a position as to catch the spat and give it a chance of obtaining a hold before it perished or was carried away into the open sea. The old oyster beds in the Bay of St. Brieuc were renewed on this principle, banks being constructed and overlaid with bundles of wood to prevent the escape of the new spat. The attempt was entirely successful, and led to the establishment or re-establishment of those numerous parcs, with which the French coast is studded from Brest to the Gironde. The principal centres of the industry are Arcachon, Auray, Cancale, and la Teste.
It is at Marennes, in Normandy, that the production of the celebrated ‘green oyster’ is carried out, that especial luxury of the French epicure. Green oysters are a peculiarly French taste, and, though they sometimes occur on the Essex marshes, there is no market for them in England. The preference for them, on the continent, may be traced back as early as 1713, when we find a record of their having been served up at a supper given by an ambassador at the Hague. Green oysters are not always green, it is only after they are placed in the ‘claires,’ or fattening ponds, that they acquire the hue; they never occur in the open sea. The green colour does not extend over the whole animal, but is found only in the branchiae and labial tentacles, which are of a deep blue-green. Various theories have been started to explain the ‘greening’ of the mollusc; the presence of copper in the tanks, the chlorophyll of marine algae, an overgrowth of some parasite, a disease akin to liver complaint, have all found their advocates. Prof. Lankester seems to have established[221] the fact,—which indeed had been observed 70 years before by a M. Gaillon,—that the greening is due to the growth of a certain diatom (Navicula ostrearia) in the water of the tanks. This diatom, which is of a deep blue-green colour, appears from April to June, and in September. The oyster swallows quantities of the Navicula; the pigment enters the blood in a condition of chemical modification, which makes it colourless in all the other parts of the body, but when the blood reaches the gills the action of the secretion cells causes the blue tint to be restored. The fact that the colour is rather green than blue in the gills, which are yellowish brown, is due to certain optical conditions.
Not till the young white oyster has been steeped for several years in the muddy waters of the ‘claires’ does it acquire the proper tint to qualify it for the Parisian restaurant. The ‘claires’ are each about 100 feet square, surrounded by low broad banks of earth, about 3 feet high and 6 feet thick at the base. Before the oysters are laid down, the gates which admit the tide are carefully opened and shut a great many times, in order to collect a sufficient amount of the Navicula. When this is done, the beds are formed, and are not again overflowed by the sea, except at very high tides. The oysters are shifted from one ‘claire’ to another, in order to perfect the ‘greening’ process. About fifty million of these ‘huitres de Marennes’ are produced annually, yielding a revenue of 2,500,000 francs.
It appears, from the experience of one of the most enthusiastic of French oyster-growers (Dr. Kemmerer), that oysters grow best in muddy water, and breed best in clear water. Thus the open sea is the place where the spat should fall and be secured, and, as soon as it is of a suitable size, it should be transferred to the closed tank or reservoir, where it will find the quiet and the food (confervae, infusoria, minute algae) which are so requisite for its proper growth. In muddy ground the animal and phosphorous matter increases, and the flesh becomes fatter and more oily. A sudden change from the clear sea-water to the muddy tank is inadvisable, and thus a series of shiftings through tanks with water of graduated degrees of nourishment is the secret of proper oyster cultivation.
The American oyster trade is larger even than the French. The Baltimore oyster beds in the Chesapeake River and its tributaries cover 3000 acres, and produce an annual crop of 25 million bushels, as many as 100,000 bushels being sometimes taken from Chesapeake Bay in a single day. Baltimore is the centre of the tinned oyster trade, while that in raw oysters centres in New York. Most of the beds whose produce is carried to New York are situated in New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, or Virginia. The laws of these states do not allow the beds to be owned by any but resident owners, and the New York dealers have consequently to form fictitious partnerships with residents near the various oyster beds, supply them with money to buy the beds and plant the oysters, and then give them a share in the profits. It has been estimated that from the Virginia beds 4,000,000 bushels of oysters are carried every year to Fair Haven in New England, 4,000,000 to New York, 3,000,000 to Providence, and 2,000,000 each to Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. The American ‘native’ (O. virginica) is a distinct species from our own, being much larger and longer in proportion to its breadth; it is said to be also much more prolific.