The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-10-05
The Juicy Oyster. IHartford Times.]

A telegram in Wednesdays Times gave the welcome news that an official examination of the Connecticut oyster beds, by the shell-fsh commission, dis closes the fact that the yield of oysters will be greater than ever before. The seed oysters, suitable for transplanting, were found to be especially abundant, the yield of these alone being greater than it was in 1889, when the harvest of Connecticut seed oysters was mill lion bushels. This abundance of seed oysters has lowered the market price, which has for five years averaged fifty cents; it is now twenty cents. Licens- es for oyster fishing on the natural beds this fall and winter have been issued to the number of 250, or about 100 more than last year. There seems to be every prospect of an abundant supply of oysters, from October to April. This Is we'll; for there is no other thing that can make good the lack of oysters. The attractions of colder weather in clude, very decidedly, for most people, the welcome reappearance of the steam ing dish of oysters on the family table. The oyster, in fact, has almost become the national dish for Americans; they could hardly get along without their oysters.
 October is the true time for their re- appearance in the market. Those that are brought out earlier are apt to lack some touch of the appetizing and dis tinctive oyster quality. This bivalve really needs decidedly cool weather to develop its distinctive flavor, or quail ity. The ayster relishes better at Thanksgiving than at the beginning of October; but at either time, and all winter, it is the frequent and almost indispensable dish on hundreds of thou sands of breakfast or tea tables.
 The capitol invested in the oyster business is over $10,O00,O00 for the Ches- apeake bay and Connecticut shore beds alone. The Maryland shore of course exceeds that of Connecticut in the ex- tent of its oyster business; the Chesa- peake bay oyster beds are in fact the most extensive of any in the world, and American oysters are the finest of any, There are none better than those grown on the beds near the Connecti- cut shore of Long Island sound. Uni ted States Fish Commissioner McDon- aid, in his last report November 29, 1s93,) makes the aggregate investment, including vessels, boats and apparatus, and the packing houses ashore (chiefy at Baltimore) for the Maryland oyster industry, no less than 7,269,245. The capital invested in the Connecticut oys- ter business is about $3,500, ,O00, and the value of our catch and product Is about $1,25o,000 Men employed in Connecti- cut fisheries number between HOO and 1,200, and there are 500 vessels Wages paid out to the men run from $2e3, 900 to $3oo, 1000. It is an important business; but it is not so great as the Chesa- peake bay oyster business, which shows up ii, ,632, ,73O bushels as the harvest of 1923, and an aggregate sum of $5,S6s, 900 as the amount received for that harvest. In the Chesapeake bay fishery there are 3,3Ss persons employed. including the packers and other workers on shore; and more than 10000 of these seem to be employed in catching oysters with the "tongs," or in dredging the beds, and in "scraping" and transporting the catch.
 Among the fishing industries of the United States the oyster fishery ranks first in importance.