Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-01-28
PLUMBING OYSTERS.
They Are Made q, Took Fat, but Are
Simply FiIIeA Up with Fresh Water.

They Are Made e., Took Fat, but Are
Simply FiIIea Up with Fresh water.
Not every lover of the oyster knows that
the size and plumpne~s which are so high
ly priced in that great American bivalve,
and are so attractive in specimens on the
half shell or in a stew as TO lead the aver
age man to pay an extra price for extra
size, are not entirely natural. Yet it is
the usual practice for dealers instead OF
selling the oysters in the condition in
which they are taken from the salt water
beds, to first place them for a time-forty
eight hours, more or less-in fresh or
brackish water in order, as they say, to
''fatten" them. the operation being called
floating or laying out" BY this proc
ess the body of the oyster acquires such a
plumpness and rotundity, and its bulk and
weight are so increased as to increase its
selling value materially.
The belief is common among oystermen
that this "fattening'' is due to an actual
gain of flesh and fat, and that the nutri-
| tive value of the mollusk Is increased by
| the process. Such, however, is very far
| from being the truth. If bladder he
| filed with salt water and then put into
| fresh water the salt water will gradually
| work its way out through the pores Of the
bladder, and at the same time the fresher
water will enter the bladder.
| Furthermore, the fresh water will 20 in
much more rapidly than the salt water
| goes out, owing to the fact that the latter
| is more dense. The result viii be that the
/ amount of water in the bladder will be III
| creased, and the bladder will swell by tax
ing up more water than it loses. while at
the same time it loses a portion of the salt.
The same principle exactly applies to the
| oyster.
Roughly speaking, the body of the oyster
may be regarded is a collection Of mem
| braueous sacs. These sacs are impreg
mated with the salt Of the sea water il
which the animal lives. So long as the
bivalve remains in the salt water the solu
ton of salt within it is in equilibrium with
the water outside. But when ii is placed
in fresh or brackish water the salt passe:
out of the body and a larger amount OF
fresh water enters, producing the diaten
sion called ''fatteninG."
, Oystermen find that the oysters "fattcn'
much more quickly in fresh than il
brackish water, quite naturally. Warmth
too, is so favorable to the process that it il
sometimes found profitable slightly Il
heat the water in which the oysters ar
, floated. Although oysters are general!
fioated in the shell, the same effect is yer!
| commonly Obtained ny AIDING lreSn waite
to the oysters after they have beer
'shucked." Oysters lose much of thei
salty favor in floating, of course, and it i
chiefly on that account nat the specimen
one eat are apt to be less salt than woul'
: be agreeable TO the palate. II the fiat
tened" oysters are left too long on the ioa
they become lean again.
y Experienced dealers say that the tim
for allowing salt oysters to lie out j
seldom over two or three days, at the en-
of which time the maximum plumpness
obtained. At Franklin City, Nd, oyster
are 'fattened" on a considerable scale, an
one planter there warns fresh water 70
the purpose to 60 degs. Fahrenheit in wiz
ter by steam pipes running beneath tn
wooden Enclosure which surrounds tn
''piumping float"
Good fat oysters generally yield fiv
quarts of solid meat to the bushel, bu
after floating two tides or more in It'd
river they will measure six quarts pc
bushel, Finally they are taken from tb
shells, if they-arc 10 be shipped in ths
way and when the liquor is all straine
off they are washed in cold fresh waite
and packed for market. In warm weathe
! they are put into the water with ice
Washington Star.