Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1888-11-17
THE TOOTHSOME OYSTER.
SOME CURIOUS LORE ABOUT ITS
CULTIVATION.

Decrease in the Yield OF Natural
Beds Overcome by Artificial Pro-
duction = Oysters as Food.
A reporter of the New York Press re-
Gently perused the last annual report of
Mr.. Eugene G. Blackford of the oyster
investigation Of the Empire State, and
| CLEANED come curious facts therefrom.
One of the subjects investigated was
the cause of the decrease in the supply
of oysters. There are two reasons at
tributed therefor: First, the depletion
of the natural growth oyster beds from
over6shing, and second, the lack of q
thorough and scientific culture Of planted
beds. Some interesting data are tabu-
lated as regards the first cause contrib
uted from European oyster beds. For
example, from the beds of the districts
of Rochefort, Marrennes, and the island
of Oleron on the west coast of France
there were taken in the years 1653-54
10000 200 oysters and in 1S54-5 49,
900, 900. By means of long continued
and exhaustive fishing they were rendered
SO poor that in 1904 only 400, 900 oys-
sters were furnished for the market. The
very celebrated rich oyster beds of the
Bay of Cancale, on the coast of Nor
mandy, produced in 1947, according to
the official reports, $1,000, 900, which
| gradually decreased until in 1859 only
5000, 900 were produced, and in 1855
only ], 900, 900. English oyster beds re-
veal the same astonishing decrease in the
supply. Prior to 1856, 700 men, work.
ing 800 boats, we're profitably employed
in oyster fishing In the neighborhood of
Falmouth, but since then the beds have
become so impoverished that in 1876
only about forty men, with less than
forty boats, could find employment, and
even with this greatly diminished num-
Der of boats no single boat took daily
more than sixty to 100 oysters, while
previously in the same lime boat could
take from 10, 900 to 10, 900.
The French were foremost in expert
ments upon the production of oysters
artifcially, and their expectations were
based upon theoritical calculations of
what could be done, knowing that
good size spawner is capable of produc-
ing 60, 900, 900 young. These expert
ments under the auspices of the French
Government, revolutionized the system
of oyster culture and brought about re-
suits that increased the supply many
| fold. In the basin of the Arcachon the
increase in ten years by means Of arti-
| fetal production was astoundin. In
1871 the number of oysters imported
was q, 997, 500, valued at 28S, 392 francs,
and in 1880 the number amounted to
105, ATT, 357, and the value to a, 254, 465
francs, an increase of 1887 per cent. in
| ten years of the value of the oysters.
The French method consists substan-
TALLY in suspending tiles in the water
during the spawning season. They
found that the young oysters clung very
closely to these tiles; 30 they take the
trouble to coat each with plaster and
after the young oysters have set upon it,
take them up, separate the plaster from
them with knives and use the tiles again
the next spawning season. The plaster
holding the set Is then planted and the
young oysters cultivated.
The American system, as in use in
Long Island Sound, is upon the same
principle, only we are more fortunate,
| inasmuch as we do not have TO resort to
! so troublesome and expensive a method
of collecting the spat. Our refuse oyster
shells, deckers, cinders, etc., serve as
collectors and produce splendid results.
| In fact, our favorable conditions on this
side have caused deal of comment from
foreign authors, and our yield appears
J to them to be something remarkable.
Very little is popularly known with
reference to the value of oysters as food.
Speaking roughly, quart of oysters
contains on the average about the same
quantity of actual nutritive substance as
a quart of milk or pound of very lean
beef, or pound and half of fresh cod.
fish, or two thirds of pound of bread.
But while the weight of actual nutri-
ment In the different quantities of food
materials named is very nearly the same,
the quality is widely different. That Of
| very lean meat or Goldfish consists mostly
of what arc called in chemical language
protein compounds, or flesh formers, the
substances which make blood, muscle,
tendon, bone, brain and other nitrogen
Gus tissues. That of the bread contains
but little of those and consists chiefly of
starch, with q little fat and other COM
pounds which serve the body as fuel and
| SUPPLY IL Wlbu bCub uhA AhuoSuioh
power The nutritive substance of
oysters contains considerable of both the
s'Hesh forming" and more especially the
heat and force giving ingredients.
Oysters come nearer to milk than almost
any other common food material as re-
CARDS 10th the amounts and the relative
proportions of nutrients and the food
values of equal weights Of milk and
oysters; that is to say, their values for
supplying the body with material to
build up its parts, repair its wastes and
| furnish it with heat and energy would be
pretty nearly the same.
It is q common practice Of oyster
dealers instead OF selling the oysters in
the condition In which they are taken
from the beds In salt water, to first
place them for time, forty-eight hours,
more or less, In fresh or brackish water,
in order, as the oystermen say. to ''fat-
ten" them, the operation being called
''loating, or s1ayiug out" BY this
process the body Of the oyster acquires
such plumpness and rotundity and its
bulk and weight arc so increased as to