St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-09-22
THE SLIPPERY OYSTER
Once More With Us for a
Season.
HIS LIFE AND HOME.
LIFE AND
HOME.
HIS
The Pure Animal, Uncooked, Gulped
In His Own Liquor, the
Best.
New York Letter.


ending and people begin pouring BACK
to town and to their old homes again,
the oyster gets half way out of his shell
and announces, that his vacation, too,
is over, and that he is willing to serve
and be served. Tradition, usage, COM
mon custom and the fishmonger all con-
spire to let the oyster alone from May
to Sept. 1. To-day, the opening day OF
the season, was celebrated alike from
Delmonico's to the Jim Fisk, and from
the Harlem fiat to Fifth avenues homes.
Oyster houses which had closed their
doors for the summer months opened
them with welcoming arms, and tired
gourmands took new courage at the
coming of their invigorating food. Deal
ers all unite in saying that the oysters
this winter will be fine and fat, and,
best of all, abundant and cheap.
THERE ARE GREAT OYSTER BEDS
at Princes bay and all around New
York bay, at Little Neck bay. Oyster
bay. Cow bay, Flushing bay, the Great
South bay, Rockaway, AbsecOm, Parker
bay, and along the north and south
shores of Long Island and the Eastern
coast of New Jersey. All these are we'll
known sources of supply for our local
market. The recent exhaustion of GER
tain beds, resulting from excessive fish
ing aud from the increase of mud upon
the grounds occupied by the oysters,
has led many to begin new work in diff
ferent sections where ebb and flow cur
face upon which oysters can
thrive with greater rapidity. Many
growers have secured new planting
grounds in the vicinity of Narragansett
Bay and about the Eastern section OF
Long Island. Important oyster ground
is carefully selected with reference to
its topography and climate, location,
area, depth and water, character OF bot
tom, temperature of water, current and
character of invertebrate life, etc, as
every change in the sadness of the
water below the general mean or in the
temperature of sea water would incur
heavy loss to any system of oyster
breeding. Some of the choicest and
most deliciously favored oysters come
from Cold Spring HarbOr, and about
the beds at Huntington, l.. L. Far
Haven and Norwalk stock holds de-
cided preference with many thorough
bred epicures.
most of the oysters used here come from
the South. In some parts of Virginia
the business is almost mOnopoliZed by
negroes. Baltimore. the great oyster
market of the United States, annually
packs more oysters than any other city
in the world. During the season an
average of forty-five or fifty vessels,
with average cargoes of 500 bushels, ar
rive at the port daily. Raw oysters,
after being opened, are packed in small
air tight tin cans holding about quart,
and these are arranged in rows in
long wooden box with blocks OF
ice between the rows, or they are
empted into keg, half-barrel or
barrel made for the purpose.
When the latter plan is pursued the
key or barrel is filled to almost five
siXths of its capacity and then large
piece of ice is thrown in, after which
the top is plastered on as closely as pos
sible and it is at once shipped: Packed
in this way, in moderate cold weather,
week or ten days. During the most
active part of the raw season there
are daily oyster trains of thirty or forty
cars from Baltimore to the West, where
nearly all the Baltimore oysters are
eaten. From the shores of the CheSa-
peake bay. as far as Detroit and Cincin-
natl, there is scarcely a town or railroad
line which is not supplied with Mary
land oysters.
The oysters used in the raw trade are
of the finest quality, as nothing in the
shape of an oyster is too small to be
available in the steamed trade. From
the prolific beds of the Chesapeake i'm
mense quantities of oysters are yearly
taken for bedding in Northern waters,
and also for immediate consumption IN
the principal cities along the coast.
Without the supplies annually drawn
from this bay the cities from Delaware
to Maine would be but poorly supplied.
several millions of bushels to re-
stock the exhausted beds of
other localities. During the win
ter the oysters taken North are
used for immediate local consumption,
while those taken in the spring are used
almost exclusively for bedding pur
poses. Among many intelligent men,
both in Maryland and Virginia, there is
great opposition to the shipment of |
oysters in the shell to Northern mar
kets. They claim justly that the pack
ing trade of the two states would be |
much more largely developed if the
Northern cities were unable to buy |
oysters in the shell. During the spring |
of 1884 over 1000, 600 bushels were taken
north for planting.
FOR A PICTURE OF THE OY STER
business of the Chesapeake bay as it !
now exists, r. Fl. Edmunds, of Basti- |
more, special agent in charge of the |
work, submitted a comprehensive re- !
port which describes the extent of the |
Maryland beds. The molusk pOpula- |
ton of Chesapeake bay is enormous. AS |
an illustration merely, it may be said |
that in Tangler Sound alone there are |
twenty-eight beds, whose united area is |
Il, 976 square nautical miles, with twice |
as much additional bottom where oysters
are occasionally caught. The oyster |
beds of Maryland extend from Lawn |
Point, opposite Baltimore, southwark, |
down to and up the Potomac "a distance |
of 125 miles. and east and west across |
the Bay of Tangier sound up all their |
as far as salt water reaches, !
IN all depths of water. In Virginia the |
lower James river is productive re-
gion.
OYSTERS are nutritious and easy of dl-
gestion, especially when eaten raw
the process of cooking coagulating and
hardening them. The following shows
their composition:
Mean Of
two analysis,
mattel. .u............... 14,O1O
Fatty matter. ......... ...-.........- I,oI9