The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-10-21

certain. Frost don't bother our


more certain. Frost don't bother our
cabbages any, you see
Don't they require any tending?
Not very much down here. In some
of the European beds they have to be
| fed, and even in the sound we have to
1 look out for star fish and other things
that spoil them. Here all we do is to
visit them occasionally to see how they
are growing"
While our boat was throwing its
cargo overheard another schooner not
/ hundred yards away was taking on a
/ load of full grown oysters.
You see" said the planter, its al
ways seed time and harvest with US.
Let's pull over and see how they're
panning out"
There is none of the exciting side Of
fishing in the gathering of an oyster
crop. 1t is strictly business occupa-
ton, the kind of business that is car
ried on with the rattle of chains and
the creaking of windlass. AS We
came alongside the second boat the big
dredge rose from the water bearing its
load of dripping shells, which looked
remarkably clean considering where
they came from. Time after time the
dredge sank out of sight to return
I again with it's bushels of oysters until
| it had made dozen trips.
That's all; now move UP" said the
man who handled the levers.
How do you know when you have
them all?" 1 asked with pardonable
wonder. for the last load that the
dredge brought UP had been nearly as
large as the first.
BLESS you, sir" said the knight of
the walking beam. 1--WE knows this bot
tom here as you does your bedroom at
home. I'll bet you new pipe that if
1 sent her down again she wouldn't
bring up a basketful."
Done said l. and the big bucket
sank out of sight again. There was a
shunting of levers here and there.
which made the dredge worm it's way
about in every direction. When it re-
appeared it contained hardly a score
of shells.
The man beside me smiled. but it was
worth the cost of pipe to test such
knowledge of the unseen.
This is sandy bottom" he ex-
planned as the work of moving the
boat forward to a new position gave
him a few moments of leisure. These
oysters were taken from the mud boz
tom over yonder and put down here
last spring. That's the way we
usually treat them, give them two sea-
sons of mud and one of sand. The
oysters will grow all right on the mud
on the sand and clean themselves so
that the fresh water rinsing isn't so
much of Job
AS fast as the oysters are heaped
upon the deck they are sorted accord
ing to size.
There are nearly as many different
kinds in tastes to suit In oysters as
there are customers" said the planter.
with some folks it's merely a, matter
Of difference between large and small,
but the genuine oyster eater develops
a nicely of taste that it's something
hard to suit. You yourself when you sit
down TO dinner would probably order
Blue Points or Rockaways or some
other kind according as your taste
runs, and of course we have to suit all
kinds Up at Norwalk Conn. we have
a plant where we raise thousands of
barrels of oysters every season for the
European market. This requires a
small round and especially firm oyster
that will not break in shipment
1T must require an extensive plant
to carry on this business
1T does. I have twenty-five sloops
five schooners and one steamboat at
work all the time. and it takes as near
as 1 can calculate about 100000 bushels
of oysters to keep the business run
nirg. OF course l am only one of a
hundred or more men in the oyster
planting business about New York.
1.-THE trade has almost all grown up
in my time, too. Forty years ago,
when l was boy my father was the
biggest oysterman about here and we
thought we were doing q rushing trade
if our one sloop brought sixty bushels
of oysters three times a week to the
old Catherine market. Now in the
busy season we handle 1000 baskets a
day"
But what becomes of the millions
on millions of oysters that are harvest
ed every year,"
MY son." replied Jim Hail. eff you
were engaged in any food producing
industry you would realize the enor-
nous capacity of the great American
stomach. When that stomach asks for
oysters it requires a tremendous lot of
them to give it a single meal Proba-
bly, New York is the greatest oyster
market in the world. but thousands of
barrels are sent to other parts of the |
country. We don't make as much noise
as we might if we were in the cam
paign procession business, but oyster
planting is a mighty important in
dustry just the same, and the pros
perity of thousands of men depends |
upon it." ROBERT EARL.
--e- CD -
a I'M