Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1867-12-26
The oy.ter Trade OF baltimore
From the Baltimore American. ~


From the Baltimore American.
The export oyster trade OF this city Is
one of its largest Industrial interests,
and by it the city Ia benefited to- degree
that is understood by but few. The bus
iness of canning Chesapeake Bay oys-
ters and sending them to all parts of the
West was inaugurated about ten years
since, and soon grew TO maximum that
for the past four years it has retained
with but "a slight variation. The exhib-
it of this maximum shows that yearly
average of $3.50, 900 bushels of oysters Is
brought to this market Ofthis number
1885,, 900 bushels are taken in Maryland
waters and 965, 900 bushels are taken in
Virginia waters. Next to Baltimore, the
largest Number of oysters are taken to
New YdNS, that city receiving an annu-
al average of 1,O5O,000 bushels. Fair
Haven, Conn, receives 100000, Phila-
delphia 100000, and Boston $50, 900 BUSH
els. These figures apply only TO oysters
taken in Maryland and Virginia waters,
the yield of the former averaging $780,
600 bushels per year, and the latter2,-
0j5, 900 bushels, the aggregate being g.
945,OO0. There are about one thousand
boats of an average tunnage of fifty tuns
each, engaged in dredging for oysters
for the Baltimore market, and supplying
vessels for other markets. A tax OF
four dollars per tun OH these boats per
annum would produce yearly revenue OF
$500, 600. The average quantity dredged
by each of these boats. during the oyster
season of six months is 4,7l6 bushels,
which, at an average price OF forty-hve
cents per bushel, shows the average re-
ceipts of each one of these boats to be
81, i28 20 for six months, or S35l 81 per
month. In addition to these sailing
vessels there are over fifteen hundred
canoes engaged in longing for oysters in
the inlets of Chesapeake Bay and its
tributaries. From these figures an idea
of the vastness of the trade anay he OBJ
tanned. There are two modes in which
oysters are packed here for transporter
ton to inland localities. BY the first
method the oysters, after being shucked,
are washed until every particle OF sedi-
ment Is removed from them, and the
natural juice oft the oyster erentirely drawn
off. They are then packed in air-tigbt
cans, each (which holds quart of oys-
ters, and the cans placed upright in
box in which there is just space enough
for two rows of them and n long block
of ice, which is sawed to fit exactly into
the space left between the cans. All re-
naming interestics are then filled with
saw dust, the box carefully nailed up,
and tho oysters are now ready for trans
portation to all the principal cities of
the West. How long they will keep
fresh, when thus packed, depends entire
ly upon the state of the weather. AT
present they are being sent as far as
Memphis, one thousand three hundred
miles distant. When II few days OF
warm weather happen, and there's dan
ger of the oysters spelling in the cars,
! the agents, who are employed in all the
| Western cities by the packers here, open
! the boxes which hold the cans, and place
| fresh blocks Office therein so that the oys-
! ters are sent fresh as far West as Denver
and Santa Fc. This mode of packing will
not, however, answer when oysters are
required to be transported to warm coun-
tries, or to undergo voyage on shipboard.
! For such use the oysters are steamed in
tie shell and then taken out, washed
clean, and packed in cans that are sealed
so as to be perfectly air tight. oysters
thus preserved may he kept pure for an
almost indefinite length of time, SO that
the cans are only kept air tight. They
are, when put up i'm this manner, sent
all over the world, but the largest trade
from this port is to the West India Is
lands. The packing and expectation 80
far this season indicates that the trade of
this year, will equal aud, perhaps, sur
pass that of any of the past three years.
The yield of oysters and the prices re-
main the same. There are ut present
about thirty packing houses in the city
employing some forty-ilve hundred
shuckers or openers of oysters, OF whom
the larger number are c0lored men and
women. Over ten thousand people are
interested In the oyster trade In this
city, these figures including the shuck'
ers, passers, timers, boxmakers, wagon
crs, and the employees in the different
packing houses. Ofthe 3,S80,Q00 bushels
of oysters annually brought TO this city
,S75, 900 bushels are packed raw, 1860,
600 bushels are preserved by steaminf
and packed, and 900 bushels nr'
used in the shell for the city and sur
rounding country consumption 1T Is
thought that the aggregate of the season
that has just opened will show decreas
in the number of bushels packeC
steamed, and corresponding increas
in the number of bushels packed raw
The packing house in this city whicl
does the largest business In oyster pack
ed raw IL at the present time employin;
800 shuckers, who open about go
:, bushels daily. 1t il estimated that dur
Q ing the busiest season the various pack
e ing houses In the city open an aggregat
{ of 40 900 bushels daily. OF this larg
: amount by far the greater part Is distrl
g buted among the cities OF st. Louis
Chicago, Cincinnati, and Louisville
I The remainder goes to the smalle
: Western cities and towns, many boXe
! going rs far west rs Denver and SAINT
I Fe.