The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1871-03-17

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In a paper called the Interior VIC
find o most interesting article non
oysters, and oyster farms. - %
interesting an article, and upon - 1n-
teresting a subject, that we must read
it all to our young friends.
How would you like to live where
you could go out and pick oysters for
dinner, rs you doapples? You need
not smile; yo1 could easily do It 1t
you lived near an oyster farm. And
it is about these curious farms that /
want to tell you.
/. You must know that we eat 30 ma
ny oysters that they grew scsrce in
mary places, and people began to fear
that we should exhaust the supply.
That would be sad calamity to those
who ae very fond of oysters; 80
some enicrprising men set themselves
to work 10 cultivate oysters as we do
potatocs-only in different way.
|. When the little oyster is launched
into life, TO take care pf himself, his
first care is to secure home. His
wants are very simple, requiring
merely h0lding-on place--for hold
lag on j the speciality of an oyster.
If he cannot at once secure q safe
home, he is almost sure to be de7our-
ed by fishes, for fishes like oysters as
well as men.
As soon as this fact ahout the young
oyster was discovered by the wise
men, they conceived the idea Of pro-
viding homes for the little creatures,
as men provide homes for little chill
dren-only, as oysters don't care for
cradles, and milk, their nurseries were
made in this way:
Strong stakes were driven into the
mud-under water, of course-and
between them were woven branches
of trees. That was all. Having the
nurseries really, the men now brought
several boat-lotds of old oysters, aud
placed them on the ground around
the stakes, TO start the farm. As the
young oysters are hatched, they nata-
rally attach themselves to the branch
es, and proceed at once to grow.
Each oyster is said to lay two millions
of eggs i'm season.
There are o,her ways of farming
oysters. One way, in use in Italy,
where small lake is devoted TO tue
purpose, is TO build small hill OF
stones, and make sort of fence around
ii, with stakes driven into the ground.
The old oy sters live on the hill. and
the Young ones on the stakes. When
the farmer wants oysters, he has only
to pull up stake, aud pick them OIL.
In France there is still different
wav. The farms are encloSed in stone
| walls, aud large stones are scattered
among the oysters, who live ON the
ground. Of course the baby oysters
live on the stones.
There are thousands of these farms
ON the shores of France. They have
even gone SO far as to improve the
flavor of the common oyster bs arti-
fetal feeding.
Don't you think it must have been
a brave man who ventured upon the
experiment of swallowing such a Gu
rious looking object as an oyster, for
the first time? There is a legend about
this individual, which may be true
it is old enough to be SO, and / will
tell it to you:
"Olce upon time" long time
ago, man walking on the sea-shore,
saw an ugly-looking object, which he
carelessly kicked away. The oyster
for it was an oS ster--probIbly aston
ished, opened its shell, perhaps to see
who was its adversary. Seeing the
cream color OF the inside, the discoy-
erer thought he would examine it,
and took it up for that purpose. The
oyster, insulted, slammed the door i'm
his face. catching the mans inger as
he did so.
AS soon as he could get it out, he
very naturally put his smarting finger
to his mouth, when 10! he was de-
lighted with the taste, and proceeded
at once to seize the oyster, and COM
mence the war upon his species, which
has increase! from that day to this.
He broke the shell, and cautiously
tasted--the result satisfed--he ate the
whole.
1t is fair to presume that the secret
got out.