The system pursued in France is that introduced by M. Coste, and founded on his study of the Fusaro park. In 1858 he reported to the Emperor that of twenty‐three oyster‐beds which had once existed at Rochelle, Marennes, Rochefort, the Isles of Ré and Oleron, only five were left, and that at other places formerly famed for oysters a similar mournful statement must be made. “The impulse given by this report has been productive of the most satisfactory results in France. All along the coast the maritime populations are now actively engaged in oyster culture. Oyster‐parks, in imitation of those at Fusaro, have sprung up. In his appeal to the Emperor, M. Coste suggested that the State, through the Administration of Marine, and by means of the vessels at its command, should take steps for sowing the whole French coast in such a manner as to re‐establish the oyster‐banks now in ruins, extend those which were prosperous, and create others anew wherever the nature of the bottom would permit. The first serious attempt to carry out the views of the distinguished Academician were made in the Bay of St. Brieuc. In the month of April in the same year in which his report was received operations commenced by planting 3,000,000 mother‐oysters which had been dredged in the common ground; brood from the oyster‐grounds at Cancale and Tréquiers being distributed in ten longitudinal lines on tiles, fragments of pottery, and valves of shells. At the end of eight months the progress of the beds was tested, and the dredge in a few minutes brought up 2,000 oysters fit for the table, while two fascines, drawn up at random, contained nearly 20,000, from one to two inches in diameter.” The publicity given to these facts excited great and practical interest, and in a short time the culture assumed gigantic proportions. The Bay of Arcachon was transformed into a vast field of production, no less than 1,200 capitalists, mostly very small ones, associated with an equal number of fishermen, having up to 1870 planted no less than 988 acres of oysters. In this way the State organised two model farms for experimental purposes, at the trifling original cost of £114; it was estimated to be worth £8,000 in 1870, and had 5,000,000 oysters, large and small. 1,200 parks were then in active operations on the Isle of Ré, and 2,000 more in course of construction. [Illustration: DREDGING FOR OYSTERS.]