The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-09-18
1T IS AN ANCIENT EDIBLE.
ROMANS WERE PROBABLY THE
FIRST TO FATTEN THEM BY
dpLTivATIoN.
QUEER OYSTERS OF FRANCE
The Anatomy of the Mollusk-Its
Infancx and Old
Age.
Now comes the oyster!


they swallow it, That is not true at
luscious mollusc will probably be sur
prised to learn that it has a heart
which pumps blood through the YES
sells Of it's body, just like their own. 1t
also has gills. for breathing purposes,
liver, an intestinal canal and a
stomach. But these organs are not all.
1t has what is practically a brain,
which is the center of a system of
nerves. The nerves are provided with
sense organs at the ends, which en-
able the animal to communicate with
the outer world
Just think of swallowing such q
complicated creature alive! People
generally suppose that the 'heart" is
that part Of the animal which attaches
it to the she'll AS a matter of fact,
that Is the oysters big muscle which
holds 1T firm to its house When the
oyster is first Matched it is free
swimming animal, and goes just where
it pleases. The first few days of its life
it spends swimming around in the
water. At this stage it In no way re-
sembles the mature b1valve. This time
spent wandering about is most peril
GUS for it, 1t is so small that a fish
may eat it and thousand Of it's kind
and hardly know the difference. 1t soon
gets tired of this activity, however
and hunts for some hard and station
itself; then 1t proceeds to form its
she'll and grows up. From this time on
1t is sedentary animal
n
ture as turnips, but biologists assert
Organs of locomotiOn were possessed
by their remote ancestors, and they
wandered about in search of food.
oysters are very ancient creatures, and
they must have become fixed" many
millions of years ago. They found that
by fastening themselves to rocks above
the soft mud in bays they could procure
plentiful supply Of vegetable food.
Oysters would reproduce themselves
with an alarming rate of speed, If it
were not for the fact that the mother
bivalve does not care for her eggs,
but simply throws them out in the
world to shift for themselves. In this
way most of them are lost and die.
Those that afterwards grow up are the
few which survive. We would not pos
Silly eat enough of the molluscs to
keep the supply within bounds if it
were not for this fact. 1t has been
estimated that the descendants of g.
single female for five generations
would number sc, 600, 900 DOC, O00, 900, O0O,-
$1,000, 00O, 100000. At each spawning
she lays an average of about $4,000, 900
eggs
Prehistoric man ate oysters and pre-
sumably enjoyed them quite as much
as We do. Savages Of all nations use
them as an article of diet and devour
them in great numbers, as they are
very easy to procure by tribes living
on the seacoasts, the only labor in
volved in getting them being to wade
in the water at low tide and bring
them ashore. In fact the ancient
aborigines have left heaps of the shells
all along the coast.
The artificial cultivation of the oys-
ter has been carried on by civilized
men for many centuries. It is claimed
that a Roman knight. who lived a
couple Of hundred years before the
birth of Christ, was the inventor of the
system, and that it was carried on
successfully at that ancient date at
Lake Fusaro, in Europe. At all events,
whether this is SO or not, 1t is certain
that they were first artif1cially reared
for market in Italy. The processes
that are in use today for propagatine
and rearing oysters in lakes near
Naples are exactly the same as those
employed by the ancient Roman as far
back as the time of Marius.
The Mare Piccofo has long been
famous for it's. oysters. 1t is, indeed,
a small oysterbearing sea. Lake Luz
crime is the most interesting of the
bivalve-producing lakes of Italy. Its
sea wall forms the highway to Naples.
The quality of the nolluscs it produces
- ;1I,
listed there 1000 years ago, and were so
famous in imperial Rome.
The cultivation of oysters in France
is Of recent origin. Fifty years ago
the oyster banks were allowed to be
dredged as the supply seemed to be in
exhaustible The depletion brought
about in this way finally made the gov
eminent interfere SO as to protect the
remaining bivalves. In fact, it was
found necessary to take measures to
restore the supply. So the artificial
rearing of the molluscs was begun, and
it has since become an enormous and
very profitable industry.
The French consider their oyster,
which is of different species from
ours, as far superior Americans, on
the other hand, much prefer their own,
calling the French 'coppery and COW
cred with verdigris. The bivalves
that come from Marennes are more
highly priced by the people of France
than any others. They have an ex-
quisite flavor and are bluish-green in
color They obtain these qualities by
being transplanted to artificial ponds
for short time before being sent to
market. The reason for this Is that in
these ponds they feed upon a certain
kind of diatom which contains par
ticles of green coloring matter Con-
No fbof r.icr ,orlf erfxy
the oyster an iniInitable flavor. The
culturist tries to make his bivalves as
green as possible, as those with most
color bring the highest prices.
The waters. OF Maryland produce
one-third of the total oyster supply in
the world. 1t yields twice as many of
these luscious bivalves as are grown In
all foreign countries combined. During
the present century it has put on the
market 400,000.Q00 bushels of the tooth
some molluses.r They have sold for
the enormous sum of $3.50 900, 900. AL
most all of this country is dependent
for the abundance and cheapness Of
this edible on the supply of the Ches-
apeake. From here also come very
nearly all of the oysters used for can
ming. In fact the output of this in
dustry of Maryland is equal to one
sixth Of all the fisheries of the United
States put together.
The quantity Of oyster shells landed
upon the shorFs Of Maryland during
the last century has been reckoned as
Il, 0O0, 900 tons. = Until very lately the
canning firms have had trouble in get
ting rid of the shells, having to pay in
fact, for the removal OF all that they
could not give away. Recently, how
ever, they have been able to sell them
They are now shipped to all parts Of
the country and are utilized variously
for roads, for lime, and employed in
making coal gas They have also been