St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1894-07-07
THE OYSTER or COMMERCE.
4 BIk Business That ID Bigger u Mary.
land Than Anywhere Else.

VIE OVSueH Of OOUW6UNes
! 4 BIx Business That ID Bigger - Mary.
land Than Anywhere Eise.
The hero who was the first man to
swallow an oyster would be astounded
+, If he could read part OF a recent bulle-
tin Of the United States fish commits
sion and see what an important indus
i try he started all by himself This bull
letin tells about the oyster business in
Maryland, but, as Maryland produces
one third of the worlds oyster product,
the story Of the industry in that state
contains about all that is necessary to
an understanding of the importance OF
the oyster commerce
OF the 35, 600, 600 bushels Of oysters
produced in the world each year nearly
30. OOO. 600 bushels are natives of the
United States, and more than II, ,O0O, 600
bushels come from Maryland waters
The value of Maryland's product is
nearly $6, 900. 600. that of the United
States about tl6 OO0, 600. and that of the
rest of the worlds little more than
sla. 500. 900. 1t will be noted that
higher valuation per bushel is put upon
foreign than upon United States oys-
terS This is because good oysters are
cheap here, while poor oysters are dear
elsewhere. When lover of this deli
cacy calls for oysters in London eat
ing house he is asked If he will have
the best. and when he says that he
will he gets sample of Hol-
lands product The oyster beds
OF Holland yield about 10000
bushels year, and they are valued in
this computation At $4,000 or more
than Is a bushel Maryland oysters
are put down 1t q shade over 50 cents
bushel; but there can be no comparison
between the succulent morsel Of Mary
land and the rugged old mollusk OF
Holland. The latter, as eaten in
Europe, looks and tastes somewhat
like an ante-bellum copper cent spat-
tered with acid and sprinlsled with
pepper; and when the partaker tackles
this so-called delicacy from Holland it
seems to him that the chief difference
between the oyster and the seasoned
cent would be that the cent might kill
him and the oyster might not
True to his purpose of treating the
oyster from a purely industrial point
| of view, the author of the treatise in
question has not turned aside to give
even casual attention to the fascinat-
ing question as to the identity of the
FIRST man that swallowed an oyster:
but he sets forth facts which suggest
the inquiry whether at least two in
vestigators working independently in
the field Of gastronomy, did not arrive
at demonstrations of the edibleness Of
this mouusk Of forbidding aspect.
Pliny mentions an Italian oystermau
Of the name Of Sergius Orata who culti-
vated beds in Lake Lucrinus about
1900 years ago and says as much rs to
say that the Lucrinuses were the sad
die rocks Of that day. The prehistoric
she'll mounds of this country show that
the Indians were large consumers of
oysters before any white man came.
Thus we find that the noble American
| and the noble Roman were eating Oys-
ters, probably simultaneously, at
period anterior to any known assOcia-
tion of tho white and red races That
the early white corners to these shores
did not bring with them the art Of eat
ing oysters and were slow to learn it
from the Indians seems evident from a
writing of John Smith, published in
1851. in which he says substantially
that the colonists got nothing in the
| way of food from the waters of the
Chesapeake. Half y century later it
was written of the Kent islanders that
one Of their grievous hardships was
having to eat oysters to keep from
| starving. A hundred years later began
the oyster war that has ragged up to
this time between Maryland and Vir-
ginia, and it is probable that the out
break Of hostilities marks the begin
ming Of the importance of the oyster
| industry in the United States The
Marylanders and the Virginians dis
covered that o good oyster was worth
| fighting for. 1t is impossible to speak
of the present aspect of the contest. for,
| like the revolutions in Central America,
it is kaleidoscope. Nothing but the
latest kilograms from the troubled
waters can afford a view of the situa-
| ton up TO date. Meanwhile, despite
the war. the development of the indus
try went on until, through the magni.
tude chiefly of the operations in Mary.
land, the oyster business took first rank
among the fishery industries of the
United States
In later years the utilizing Of the
shells has been an important part of
the oyster business Nobody has yet
answered the question that the fool
propounded to King Lear-how the
oyster makes its shell-though it is
known that the shell is three.fourths
carbonate of lime and carbonate OF
| lime is valuable. Because of this SUBJ
stance the shells are used in the manu-
facture Of certain grades of iron, for
chicken food Ito be converted from
oyster shells into egg shclls). and for
making lime to be used in producing
coal gas and in other industries Be-
| sides these uses oyster shells are util-
| lied in restocking oyster beds. making
country roads, and ballasting rail-
roads Instances of the latter use may
be seen on three or four railroads in
Maryland and in the Southern Pacific,
near Morgan City. La
The boats employed by the Maryland
| oystermen are an interesting feature
of the industry. They began with the
| dugout canoe. and some of the largest
boats used in the business are still
canoes in shape, though not dugouts
The first canoes were made of = single
log. and were small affairs Then
three. five. or seven logs were joined
together with wooden pegs or iron
bolts. One way of making = Chesa-
peake dugout is to fashion the outside
lines of the log or logs with IN AK and
plane until the regulation form of
canoe is secured; then to bore holes,
uniform in depth. in the boat from the
outside and drive wooden pegs into
the holes: then to turn the
boat over and hew out until the inner
ends of the pegs arc uncovered. In
this way the skin Of the dugout can be
made of uniform thickness Some Of
these canoes last for many years The
Martha Washington. of . capacity OF
nearly eleven tons. was built in 1897,