The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1885-04-08
The Decline of the Oyster.

The United States Commissioner of
Fish and Fisheries has in his recent re-
port called the attention of Congress
to the decline of the oyster. Beds
which formerly produced forty-one
bushels to the acre now produce but
twenty-five bushels. Around New
York sludge acid too, is doing deadly
work among the bivalves, and what
with reckless depletion of the beds, and
corruption of the food supply. gloomy
prospect is held out. This is a serious
question. At present we consume D.
500, 900 oysters annually. There Is no
doubt about the number, for Professor
Baird and Lieutenant Winslow have
counted them; and the connection of
this vast mass of succulent bivalves
with the prosperity, the material and
moral health and progress of the coun-
try can not be insisted upon too strong
w. How closely the oyster is inter-
twined with all our deepest and hottest
feelings; how indispensable it is to the
proper carrying on of our politics, our
commerce, our church festivals and
our love-making, perhaps will never
be clearly perceived until we have lost
this intimate and most dear friend; I'M
til the face of the land is darkened and
the gayety of the Nation is eclipsed by
the removal of the familiar and ubiq-
uitous sign boards which to-day carry
cheer to the heart of the glOomiest by
their announcement OF Oysters In
Every Style"
For what would America be without
the oysterP A shudder would pass
from Maine to Florida, from the At
lantic to the sun kissed shores of the
Pacific, at this thought. Deprived of
her favorite dainty, New York would
be CITY of Dreadful Night" Sixth
avenue and Fourteenth street would
echo no more with the shouts of the
reveler. The burden of sustaining that
region of nocturnal festivity would fall
upon the clam, and he would sink I'M
der it. and perish amid the scorn of
those whose digestive organs he had
insulted by the offer Of so inadequate
and inelastic a substitution. Nor
have we to evolve these alarming con-
illusions from our imagination. The
sad experience of a sister nation con-
firms but too strongly our darkest APP
prehensions. A few years ago and the
drum beat of England was as ubiquit-
Gus as the tin horn of New Years Day;
her flag was upon every sea; her COM
merce was in every market; her pickles,
pale ale and globe-trollers were thick
as leaves in Vallombrosa; her diplom-
acy was successful; her colonies were
| contented; her policy, at home and
abroad, was admired and respected.
But there came day when her oys-
ter beds no longer yielded as before.
| First there was an oyster famine; then
the oyster ceased to be accessible to the
| masses. And so the decadenee of Eng
| land dated from that dreadful day.
Since the disappearance Of the oyster
| nothing has gone right. We have all
marked the rapid decline of that great
power. 1t is no wonder that the Brit
| ish press should have hailed the new
year dejectedly. But while some as
cribe the unhappy state of things to
! Gladstone, and some to free trade, and
some to other causes, it is clear to the
unbiased observer that the oyster is
at the bottom of all the trouble. And
| with this example and warning before
rs it behooves Congress to take prompt
| and adequate measures for the rehabil-
itation of our noble bivalve, and to
guard zealously against the threatened
extinction, which must involve in its
contamination the disappearance of
all that makes life worth living.
YncL. Tribune