Passaic City record., 1891-10-03
A PEARL FARM.
AN OHIO MANS UNIQUE EXPERT
MENT WITH MUSSELS.
Growing the Mollusks on Poles and
Introducing Bits of Wax as
the Foundation for the
Pearl-His Success.

The idea of pearl farm is unique, but
such thing exists, says New York
letter to the New Orleans Picayuse, and
the only one in the world, so far as is
known, is in the United States. We
have had in New York recently, on his
way home from Europe, Charles l..
Moore, the pearl farmer from Ohio. Mr..
Moore, as / understand it, has simply
utilized tho discovery for which Linz @us.
the great naturalist, was knighted more
than century ago. He observed that
the common mussels in fresh rivers
covered any foreign substance that got
imbedded in their shells with the pearly
exudation known as nacre, and saw no
reason why real pearls should not be pro-
duced by that process. Experiments
convinced him that it was feasible and
in 1879 he established mussel farm on
the Ohio River, about forty miles from
Cincinnati. He grew his mussels on
poles, as oysters are grown in some
places, so that he can draw them up and
inspect them at pleasure. As the fresh
water mussel is never eaten and is re-
garded as utterly valueless, there was
much speculation among the people round
about as to what this systematic cultiva
tion of the homely mullusk meant, and
it was finally decided that Moore must
belong to the genus crank. The object
of curiosity, being endowed with Yankee
shrewdness and pertinacity, kept his own
counsel, watched his pets patiently and
bided his time. He had to place some
thing inside the mussel's shell in such a
way that it could not be elected. The
mussel would then at once begin to cover
the intrusive and perhaps irritating ar
ticle with the same substance that formed
the lining of its shell. More than that,
the process once begun must continue
until the foreign growth got large enough
to be elected or caused the mussel's
death.
Now the foundation of the pearl OF
commerce is grain of sand or frag-
ment Of shell, but experiment and posi-
bly, prescience persuaded Mr.. Moore that
bit of wax would answer the purpose
better for the cultivated pearl, and form
an equally good foundation. 1t was a
commonsense notion certainly that the
plastic wax would not lacerate the del
icate tissues nor injure the mussels as
hard substance would, and it resulted
successfully, for after twelve years of the
most careful and painstaking cultivation
the pearl farm had begun to bear and the
product is all that could be wished. AS
to his experiment and its result Mr..
Moore says:
''There is no secret about it. All that
is needed is piece of good river bottom,
the mussels and patience-more of the
latter than anything else. When I first
started I had little faith in the pearl pro-
ducing qualities of the mussel, but as
was in poor health and unable to attend
to any regular business I went ahead.
For long time had to endure the jibes
of my neighbors because would not tell
what intended to do with my crop
when it was ready to be harvested. 1t
was hard work, for, to tell the truth,
was exceedingly dubious myself; but be-
fore two years had passed l was satisfied
that could grow just as good pearls as
Mother Nature, and now am egotistical
enough to think that am rather bet
ter workman in this line than that ancient
and reliable dame.
cat first the work was very slow and
most discouraging, but stuck to 1t. I
was very clumsy in handling my pets and
fully one-half of those whose shells l
pried open in order to introduce grain
of sand died. That did not pay at all,
for lost both my time and my mussels.
I tried many different substances as pearl
centers with no better success, until at
last hit upon wax. That proved to be
the right thing, and with constant
practice became so proficient that
I regard myself as quite an
expert now. l cannot only insert the
wax foundation without hurting my lit
tie workman, but can also take out the
pearl when it is as large as want it,
and give him new piece Of wax for an
other. I have fifty of the fellows well
into their second year on pearl number
two and have lost only one of them. l
have fine set of instruments made for
brain operations which use IN handling
the mussels, and have got so that I can
tell just where to look for the pearl
every time.
'.There is not the slightest danger of
overlooking the market and depreciating
the value of pearls. cannot make my
workers move fast enough tor that. For
my twelve years of labor l have only
about 400 perfect pearls to show. They
are fine though and worth from 500 to
$500 apiece, or say $1O0, 900 for the lot.
That's not so bad for twelve years of
work on farm of less than one acre.
Beside, the farm has only just come into
bearing, and Iexpect to get from fifty
to 100 pearls every year from now on.
cannot produce pearls as large as those
of legendary times that were followed
out and used for drinking cups, but I
can make them of average size as they
run nowadays, and what is more i'm
portant, can make them of different
colors. One of my finest specimens