The morning times., 1895-12-08
EATS TONS OF OYSTERS
Four Thousand Bushels a Day
Is WashiHgion's Quota.
WHERE THEY COME FROM
CheSapeak Ike and It's Tributaries + Ut.
nish the Greater Portion Whae
some Come From the North-bfg-
ger, Finer, Fatter and Cheaper Inis
Year Than Ever Before

Washington eats 1000 bushels Of oysters
daily. aud about O tun of salt, pepper,
aorseradtsh, and other condiments, which,
II beer be classed as one, Will swell the
weight Indefinitely.
OF this amount about 900 bushels are
said to bs eaten raw and the remaining
hivalvss are cooked into stews steams, and
rcasts though stews have the CALL
8y the oysterers who fill her wants Wash
.acton is said to be the biggest oyster
epter for her size within the realms "
gncls Sam.
Sonis OF the oystermen who tong ana
Srsdge and shovel and shuck far the Wash
ington appetite insinueted To The Times
that IN the matter of oysters tirts city Is
G glutton. They believe that she eats her
weight In oysters each seasnn.
Calculating 200 oysters TO the fushei,
aud one Of the stIuckers at the wharf told
The Times that this Is about right. It viii
oe seen that Washington eats 100000
oysters every day, or $500 900 per week.
The head, front and center OF the oyster
trade is carried on at the dock at the foot
OF Eleventh street, though the river boats
do thriving business in this line. The Nor
folk steamers bring up multitudes OF bar
Fels and foreign oysters come down from
tae East by rail.
EXPERT On D fSTERS-
The wharfinger, who treads the oyster
lock and collects wharfage, is an old-tims
Erizen named Tucker. who knows
Everybody who sails the nearby waters and
sknownto the maj ority ofthe tar andoakurn
ntizens of Maryland and Virginia,
Mr.. Tucker knows more about oysters
man oysters do about themselves, and
be told The Times tina. oysters were never
latter, firnuer or better favored than they
are this year; that he would Just as lief eat
ste homebred oysters of the Chesapeake
Bay as any other oysters in or out OF the
world; that they were never more plentiful
than they seem 20 be this season ano thaS
very seldom have they been cheaper.
Mr.. Tucker said he bad heard something
about the "red DEATH having disturbed
The oysters this season. and he had heard
shat they had been injured i'll some parts by
the drouth OF last summer and in others by
the heavy fogs, but he had heard about
these things nearly every year during the
sixty-odd seasons he has been interested
Ia oysters, but still the oysters bobbed up
serenely every time. BaDquo's ghost wasn't
Ia It with the Chesapeake oysters The
oyster, though IL got Knocked out just as
often as did the tender, tinted peach, yet
is was as tough as grizzly bear.
Take some seasides,',. said Mr. Tucker,
fresh out OF the ocean tides. and when they
come up they are as salt as a herring,
and lag these oysters out in some water
near the mouth OF the river, and then take
them up at the right time and serve them
raw and fresh, and you've got dish fit
for the gods and the District Commission
era. and Mr.. Tucker almost sma cked his lips
IN sympathy with his subject.
There are about one hundred boats that
ply between Washington and the oyster beds
of the lower beds and the Chesapeake Bay.
Sometimes there ara thirty or thirty- live OF
shese craft lsinR tn harbor at one time. ana