Morning journal and courier., 1888-04-12
IN THE FAB SOUTH.

MN THE FAR SOUTH Oysters and Oyster CulEure-Hovv At is Being Surprisingly Extended = New Haven Enterprise a Factor = New Orleans BIg Claim That It Is to be
 Eventually the Greatest oyster Market of the Wor1d-FOrmer New.
 Hayeners Visitors or Residents at
 Biloxi.
 The southerners are no less fond of the oyster than their brethren of the colder northern States, but until recently the chances of getting anything like an ade- quate supply of these bivalves the year round at moderate prices has been wofully slim. Now, however, the oyster culture is receiving great attention there, and southern people have suddenly woke up to the fact that the oyster with all the delicious dishes that it's name implies is no longer debarred to them except in meagre, uncertain sort of way, that they are no longer wholly de- pendent upon the northern markets with the annual freeze-up at the North that has rem dered oysters so scarce and costly at the South. Now the new South awakes from it's lethargy, and with the sudden springing into life of great coal and iron interests it finds that it can cultivate the oyster aAd that no longer in the markets of New Orleans are oysters sold in the old-fashioned hand to- mouth way, but in quantities already opened by the gallon, as at the North. It finds that it has big oyster beds in the Mississippi and in other southern waters Westward the star of empire takes it's way appears to be incorrect as applies to oyster culture; it is southward instead, and the South has be- gan to supply the Southwest at any rate with this fine eatable. Read the following from the New Orleans Times Democrat of February 29, 's8, headed:
 IA Growing Industry Shipment of New Orleans Oysters to Various Eastern and Western Markets B
 There has perhaps been no trade local to New Orleans that has been pushed ahead more within the last two years than that of the shipment of oysters to points in the East and West. Up to that period the oyster trade of this city was confined to an area of two hundred and fifty miles from here. The process of handling the bivalves at that time i was equally restricted, as they were sold here by the number. If thousand were purchased they were opened and counted one by one, slew and tedious manner of deliv- cry. But as the business has extended, spreading west as far as Yankton, Dakots, Omaha and Denver, into Kansas and Mis- souri, and as far east as Wheeling, West Virginia, it became necessary to adopt the Baltimore and New York system of selling OJ lIS Bd44OA. AAkS CA P0OAtO5 buO AonO111k immensely, for they can be scooped out into the measures and emptied into the reeeptacles for shipment with great rapidity.
 MT. B. w. Cason, agent of the Pacific Ex- press company, was the originator of the idea to send samples of the New Orleans oysters to the various western and eastern towns, and by. offering special rates intro duce them into all the sections mentioned. His success from the first was marked, for the people in those parts soon& realized the fact that the New Orleans oysters were far superior in flavor, size and fatness to those of Baltimore or even the New York Blue Points.
 The different express companies carry the shipments at special rates, and are pushing this business in all directions The Pacific Express company does tremendous busi- ness in this line, and it seems that the trade is destined to become very large aud four ishing one. It has been of rapid growth within the last year, and the New Orleans production is gaining in favor every day and is crowding out Baltimore and New York. From present indications this trade prom ises to increase within the year fully 100 per cent. and New Orleans to eventually be the largest oyster market in the world, as there is apparently no end to the supply.
 The oysters are all opened and put up in their own juice in water-tight half barrels and shipped by express to their destination,
 
 prime condition all ready for table use. It will be seen from the above that New Orleans is emerging still further from it's ap- athy and somnolence of years ago, so strik- ingly pictured in Gables "Old Creole Days ) New Haven is of course represented in this forward movement, for what oyster industry in the United States but that has felt the impetus of Fair Haven enterprise2 The Mississippi Sound and Oyster company, of which one of our Fair Haveners, Mir. H. w. Hitchcock, is manager and treasurer, has an immense oyster bed at Biloxi, Miss. Biloxi is the summer resort of New Orleans. AHd not only do the southerners feel proud of the great increase or their oyster industry, but they assert that the oysters they raise in their own waters, stated in the clipping above, are ahead of the northern in size and fatness and quality, and evidently feel confi- dent that they can back it up. The southern oyster trade during the recent freeze up in Baltimore had quite bonanza, as they sup piled large part of the western trade of the Baltimoreans, and during all the coldest part of the past winter the New Orleans and other southern oyster hands had to work night and day to supply the orders that poured in upon them.
 Way down in Biloxi, 10 or 15 miles below New Orleans, New Haven people are fre- quently to be seen, who have come there for health and to escape the severity of northern winters. Stopping recently at the principal hotel at Biloxi were Mir. and Mrs. Todd of Chicago, who left New Haven thirty-five years ago for the West. MT. Todd is connect- ed with the Pullman palace car works neaf Chicago. Also at the hotel were Mir. and Mrs. Way of Evanston, H., who lived in New Haven and are remembered by some of our old residents; also MT. Chidsey of East Haven. who left there 60 years ago, and Mr. Joseph Fowler, who was born in New Haven and whose daughter married the editor of the Biloxi Herald; so New Haven is quite we'll represented in that pleasant seashore winter resort.