Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1891-10-16
A PEARL FARM.
AN OHIO MANS UNIQUE EXPERI-
MENT WITH MUSSELS.
Growing the Mollusks on Poles and
Introducing Bits of Wax as
.he Foundation for the
pcarl-His Success.


.he Foundation for the
Pcarl-His Success.
The idea OF pearl farm is unique, but
such thing exists, says New York
letter to the New Orleans Picqyune, 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 Linr eus.
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 nacrc, 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 a 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. aud
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 patieatly and
bided his time. He had to place some
thing inside the mussels she'll 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 she'll 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 a frag-
ment Of shell, bat experiment and posi-
bly, prescience persuaded NJ. Moore that
a bit of wax would answer the purpose
better for the cultivated pearl and form
IN equally good foundation. 1t was
commonsense notion certainly that the
plastic wax would NOT laceratc 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 first
started had little fuith in the pearl pro-
ducing qualities OF the mussel, but a'
was in poor health and unable to attend
to any regular business l welt aheld.
For a 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 was satisfied
that could grow just as good pearls as
Mother Nature, and now AN egotistical
enough to think that an a rather bet
ter workman in this line than that ancient
and reliable dame.
"At first the work was very SLOW and
most discouraging, but stuck to 1t.
was very clumsy in handling my pets aud
fully one-half of those whose shells |
pried open in order to introduce grain
of sand died. That did not pay at all,
for lost both my time aud my mussels.
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 l became so proficient that
l regard myself as quite an
expert now. | 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 a new piece Of wax for an
other. I have fifty OF the fellows we'll
into their second year on pearl number
two and have lost only one Of them.
have fine set OF instruments made for
brain operations which | use IN handling
the mussels, and have got so that can
tel Just where to look for the pearl
every time.
"There is not the slightest dauger Of
overlooking the market and depreciating
the value Of pearls. / cauuot make my
workers move fast enough for that. For
my twelve years of labor | have only
about 400 perfect pearls to show. They
are fine though AMI worth from 800 to
$500 apiece, or say 800, 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 l expect to get from fifty
IN ion noarls ovcrv wear from now on