Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-18


dozen soft shell crabs at 81 dozen. I sup
piled every hotel and big boarding house
from Quogue to Sayville, q stretch of 30
miles The common wav of getting the
soft shell crabs has usually been to pole
over the flats at low tide and scoop them up
wherever found. But this method is slow
and uncertain as compared with my system
of keeping crabs in confinement until they
shed.
How the Crabs Arc Caught.
81 get my crabs from the men who make
business Of catching hard crabs These
men are the eelers of the spring. For crab
bing they stretch in the water long line,
sometimes half a mile, baited at intervals
of foot or two with pieces of salted or
pickled eels. We use for that eels that were
too small for market. When the line is
stretched, with half dozen poles to keep
it in place, the crabber sails along within
four or five feet of it and scoops in with his
net every crab he sees feeding on
the bait. If the catch has
been fair he will get four lime
barrels full of crabs in eight hours
work on the bay, and his net returns from
New York for them vary from 35 cents to
81 % barrel. Out of his four barrels of
hard crabs each man may get from one to
two dozen crabs that will soon shed, and
these he turns over to ME at 25 cents
dozen. In Moriches Bay there are 16
crabbers upon whom depend for a daily
supply; and from Shinnecock, on the east,
many more. I also buy 'shedders,' as we
call them, from the boys within 90 miles.
GAS my crabs come in they are sorted and
placed into one Of the big cars you see on
the edge of the creek there. take no crab
that is not within ten days of shedding,
because while kept in cars crabs refuse to
eat any food that 1 can offer them, and they
grow thin and watery. I have the crabs
graded into six cars. In the first are the
crabs that will shed inside of II hours: then
those that will shed inside of As hours and
SO on.
Crabs Are Regular Cannibals.
'Tbe crab that is going to shed will eat
one thing, and that Is just what I cannot
afford to offer him-a softshell crab. That
is the reason have to grade them so care
fully. If crab sheds in car containing
crabs that will not shed tor several days the
unfortunate will be set upon and devoured
at once bv the other crabs. There is no
mercy among them.
''The way in which we tell crab that is
about to shed can scarcely be described, the
signs VARYING SO much; but as rule it is
by the color of the breastplate and the
creases in the joints of the big claw. There
is one infallible way of knowing that you
have a shedder-whenever you find one
crab carrying another; in this case the
smaller crab Is always a female, or, as we
call it, Cow shedder. The big crab is
male which will continue to carry the she'd
der around, and will protect it from attacks
during the whole period of shedding and
hardening. This is one of the most curious
phases of crab lite, but have watched the
process too often to doubt it. A crab sheds
four or five times-once every year. When
it has attained its full growth it lives two
years and dies, so that the average life is
about six years. When the crab reaches
the last stage before shedding, say within
IL hours, it becomes torpid, and you can see
the joints beginning to open; it becomes
elastic at the joints. Then it is safe to
leave the crabs all together, because they
will eat nothing. The crab which comes
out is one-third larger than the shell he
leaves.
Crabs That Come to Pittsburc.
eff left in water, a softshell crab becomes
hard again within 48 hours. If they are in
tended for consumption nearby 1 take them
out of water at once after shedding. If
they are to go any distance, to Pittsburg,
for instance, leave them in the car Tor two
or three hours, in order to make the skin
tough enough to stand transportation.
'There are few experiments that I in
tend to make this coming summer which
may prove interesting. 1 want to find some
way of keeping crabs in captivity longer
than ten days so that I shall have larger
number Of possible shedders. They will eat
nothing but softshell crabs while in cap
tivity, so that instead of cars 1 may put
them into small ponds. Another problem
is how to keep the crab from hardening 30
quickly and at the same time keep it alive.
The first crabs come in about July 4. By
the second week in July have lots OF busi-
closes in September" G.