Evening journal., 1896-11-19
4 SUCCESSFUL CRARBING SEASON.
GROWTH OF AN IMPORTANT IN
DUSTRY ALONG THE EASTERN
SHORE

hA' IA Hi4DANH itlA HAo LlfN
SHORE.
CHL5IERTOWN, Nd, Nov l9-The
cool Gays of the present month have
brought 20 a close one of the most sue
cessiul financial grabbing seasons ever
known by Chester river crabbers. The
expression financially successful hasa
meaning TO a large class of watermen
along the Chesapeake unknown In
town. The Chesapeake crab is now
commercial commodity, which, while
coming in third on the list, Che oyster
canning first and the scale fishes sec
ond I'm order of value is of no mean
Importance. On the contrary, to put the
annual income. to the fishermen en-
gagged IN the industry at a hundred
thousand dollars would be to underes-
innate it This industry has i'm recent
years sprung up along the Chesapeake
bay. AT Queenstown, Kent Island and
Eastern Neck Island near the mouth
0l Chester river, are the principal ship
ping points for Kent and Queen Anne
counties of the soft crab or the scarcely
less appctizing hard crab.
During the early season thousands of
dozens of soft crabs were shipped from
these points, and, however strange 30
may appear, the prices were governed
largely by the phases of the moon. The
slCughing season OF the crab is after
the dark of the moon increasing as the
moon nears it's iull Operated upon by
the unYarying law of supply and de-
mand as the supply becomes more
abundant at the moons full prices
often drop TO 40 or rs cents per dozen
while at other seasons the fancy prices
of from 60 90 so cents are received.
Thousands of dozens were shipped from
Kent and Queen Anne counties alone.
bringing i'm handsome revenue.
Lobor-saving methods have entered
into the aOft-crab fishery, and from the
tedious hOOp-net method the soft crab
ia now dragged for with nets as are
other fish, and at one haul many
dozens are sometimes caught. A grassy
shore or 1at is the favorite resort for
the slOughcrs, for there, to a great ex-
tent, they are out of the way OF their
inyotcrate enemies, cells and some of
the larger fishes. IL lis only at the sea-
son OF shedding fits old for q new gar
mcnt that the crab grows and dcycl-
ops from the small crab at the open
ing of the season TO the "channeler" at
it's close. From the fact that soft crabs
are shipped in smaller quantities. il
would be impossible to aggregate the
handsome results during q single sea-
son.
10 is different however, with the
hard crab. On many trips of the Ches-
ter river steamers during the past sea-
son as-many as one hundred barrels of
hard crabs We're shipped from Kent
Island. which sold at prices varying
from % cents per barrel to ST. AT an
average of fifty barrels per day for
a three months season. deducting
twelve Sundays, gives a total of 4400
barrels, and putting the price at so
cents per barrel gives the handsome
results for this point alone for less than
three months actual work of 50 200.
With favorable conditions end good
luck attending, a single clll5,s some
times winds mp q days work with Sl5
added to his season IS profits. The trot-
line is the most picturesque way of
capturing this Summer delicacy. A
line several hundred feet i'm length has
attached at each end % noater. At in-
tervals of a few inches are lines about
eighteen inches or two feet Ia length
all well baited. The crabbor, lying ON
his stomach i'm his boat with net I'm
hand goes from end to end of this line,
and at each trip finds greater or less
number of the baitod lines with crabs
on them. Large canneries have been
opened. and the canned crab lis now
known as commodity of commerce i'm
sections where the live crab has never
been seen One of the largest of these
crab-packing establishments is located
at Oxford, Talbot county