The Wilmingtonian., 1886-08-28
THE OYSTER SEASON.

uealerS OF Cne Guy mas eleclIeu Ine lacC tnaI
the luscious bovalve will be unusually plenti-
full and of excellent quality this season.
We are on the eve of the opening of the
oyster season and by that date, September
1st, there will be over one hundred oyster
boats with their prows pointed down the
bay for Morris Cove.
Morris Cove is the emporium for the fa-
nous oyster of that name From there this
favorite brand is shipped all over the count
ry especially to Pennsylvania and the West
This favorite Jersey brand has many fan
ciers in New York and holds its own well
among the famous metropolitan oysters, the
Rockways, Blue Points. shrewsburys sc.
There are getting to be regular artificial
oyster plantations all around the shores of
Long Island.
Our Wilmington oystC" dealers have be-
come quite enterprisng and thoroughly sys-
tematic of late in their business.
| sL.Anscow & Co., will run two boats during
the season to supply their fast growing trade.
The boats will ply bi-weekly between Will
mington and Morris Cove. This company
which the home demand is specially sup
piled. There are other shippers here but
most of them, with the ex ,eption of Messrs
Lee & Sutton get their goods by rail from
Seaford. .-.s-+. -.--.
The long continued rains of the past sea-
son have been of the greatest advantage to
the growth and good development of the
luscious bivalve. Plenty of rain is it appears,
necessary condition for the fattening of
the oyster.
The Morris Cove Plant is considered by
connoisseurs as decidedly the most palata
BILE brand at the first part of the season, that
is to say till the ''freeze" sets in.
The new railroad to Cape Charles has
opened up numerous new oyster ports for
| shipping purposes. They are also shipped
also from Girdle Tree, Nd, on the George
town railroad, from Stockton, Fairmount,
Chrisfeld and Seaford, Maryland; and Cher
ry Stone, Franklin City, and Chincoteague,
Virginia.
In reply to an inquiry as to what is being
done along the ueighboring coast in the way
of replenishing the exhausted beds Mr.. Ain
scow says that when the oyster season is
over in the Spring, that is about the last of
February or middle of March the boats go
Immediately to catching plant oysters for
artificial seeding, In that season hundreds
of eshing boats pass to and fro along the
Delaware and Chesapeake Canal freighted
with seed oysters from Chesapeake Bay for
planting in the Delaware.
The plant is very small oyster only an
inch or so in diameter, unfit for the market.
They are dredged for in the natural beds in
the customary way, and are replanted along
sheltered coves in such way that when ma
tured they can easily be fished up again with
as little trouble from storms as is possible
under the circumstances.
The artificial oyster bed is usually slope of
from six to twenty feet in depth. The oysters
taken up from the inside edges of the bed
are termed "inshore oysters" to distinguish
them from the others the deep water ones
, which vary somewhat in flavor.
For frying purposes it is not always set
, tied fact as to which is the more acceptable
t In different seasons they vary. One veal
5 the deep water oyster may be the better anc
' the next season the inshore will be fount
preferable or will make more palatable fry
| This is connundrum, natural fac
4 that the oyster man cannot account for
The distinction between the two local fav
Q orite brands, the Delaware Plant and th,
: Chesapeake Plant, so far as their origin il
v concerned is that though both are grown il
' Delaware Bay the former is the genuine ma
} tive while the latter is the imported young
! ster whose mature growth and delicacy j
l. gained subsequently to its naturaliz alton Il
Delaware Bay.
The age of the early oyster is two or thre
years. Prime oysters are from three TO fly
d years.
a "Culls" are from one to two years The
sell from % to 80 cents quart, while til
s native oyster is sold all the way from 81 t
1.j0 per hundred
It Oysters planted last Spring will be use
10 the Fall Of 's7. The Chesapeake Plant
4 are taken up the Fall following the Sprin
they were planted, they grow fat so fas
The custom Of artificial planting Of tt
oyster is rapidly increasing. Twenty-Five
thirty years ago there was an extent of onl
three miles of plantation. Now the artii
cial beds along the Delaware reach for IS
20 miles from Morris Cove in the directic
of Cape May.
A general estimate for the Wilmingtc
sunnIv includes four ll-pa car loads wpek