Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1882-11-30

That the American is the best for cook
ing Is accepted, and that of the cooking
oysters the Saddle Rock is king. Many
hundreds of barrels of these oysters are
sent TO England yearly, largely to noble
men and gentlemen who have visited this
country. In Prince Albert's lifetime, the
Dorlons always sent barrel TO Windsor
Castle for Christmas. 1t has been anus
ingly asserted by persons desiring to raise
the price, as IN the case of the beef impor-
tation, that this feeble transmission will
affect the supply, 1t does not even touch
1t. In England the supply has become
scant from the small field for oyster growth.
But no eye can see through the distance of
time the day when in the United States,
with its vast coasts furnishing unlimited
fields of growth, there can come dealth
In Virginia, every season now the oyster
seed can be had for % ce3ts bushel, con-
taining some %, 600 seed oysters. In two
years, $ a 100 can be obtained for the
crop. Of course, the natural enemies of
oyster here, as on the foreign coasts, are
many. There are the star-fsh, which
clasp the bivalges In their arms and rasp
away with the. natural files they carry
until the oyster itself is laid bare. PrawnS,
too, attack the oyster when young with
great success. These little fairies may be
seen to ''back" until they get sufficient
room for rush, and then go ull tilt at
the tender shell, which they strike hard
enough to pierce it with formidable beaks
This rammlng is repeated until convent
ent hole is made and then the prawn pro
ceeds to feast upon the oyster. The crab
is, too. the deadly enemy OF the oyster.
The crabs may be seen, If you look down
from your boat into the water, growing
about everywhere in search Of young
der To crunch. At times they seem To
it for the pure. pleasure OF destruc ionf
Or they have been watched taking the III
tant oysters IN their pincers and cracking
them one after another as fast as they
could, or if the oyster is too big or strong
to be- crushed 10 death, crab will lie
quietly by until the valves open when,
quick as lightning, IN goes one of the big
claws as wedge TO be followed by
smaller one, with which the oyster is
punched out to be eaten piecemeal. lns
France the oyster has an enemy of his own
race, who, 1t is propLesleG, will gradually
drive hum out, as the HanoverIan ra',
which Charles WattertOn always called the
brown, drove out the original black rat.
This is the Portuguese oyster, which is be-
EUved to have come from the Tagus. 1t
IS inferior In quality and flavor TO the
English or French or our oyster, but is
much harder and more pushing and grows
and multiphes at prodlglous rate. Ii
does not cross tie OStreG eotGIjS in love-
Sheridan says in one of his plays ''an
oyster may be crossed in lOve"-but it
crows 1t out whenever a footing can be OBJ
tanned. These Portuguese oysters have
brought down prices. The Archacon
breeders now sell small oysters for laying
down at 81 the thousand, the prices being
somewhat lower in the MOS0ihan. Twelve
years ago they cost as much as 92 5s. a
thousand, or eight pence u dozen, for the
finest and twenty-eight shIllings Tor the
Portuguese. But at the doors OF the best
provincial restaurants ''the smiling, red
checked ecailheres" charge two shilllngs
dozen for green fms, though they can be
got for malt that price III the seaside hotels.
None of these particular enemies, hOwev-
er, reach these shores, nor can any OF the
others, which ours have in common with
the foreign oysters, make an impression on
our exhaustless supply. The enemies
which our fish have most to fear are those
cross-nets so shamefully permitted, which,
worked by stean-tugs and stretching some