Letter on Oyster Culture

Extract

I have tried breeding oysters in two enclosed ponds for over ten years. I began my experiments in 1878. These ponds are situated on the banks of the Beaulieu River, about three miles from the estuary. They were excavated from the mud-bank, and banked off from the river; the bottom was well chalked, and afterwards well coated with gravel. They are about half an acre each, and are divided by an embankment. There are three sluices communicating with the river from the ponds, and two between the two ponds. The situation of the ponds is very sheltered, being in the west bank of the river, with a wood on the west side, and the woods on the east side of the river also sheltering them. The water of the river at the spot is brackish to a certain extent, and decidedly so when there is much rain. At spring tides it is nearly as salt as the sea, but there is always a considerable mixture of fresh in the river. I have only once succeeded in obtaining any large fall of spat, and that was in the first year the ponds were made, 1878. That year there was a very early fall of spat, middle of June, and the tiles were fairly smothered with it. Since then there has been occasionally a little fall of spat, but nothing at all satisfactory.