The morning times., 1896-08-30
Copyright, 1850

New York, Aug. 29-The philOsophic
oyster views with uDdisturbed calm the
| approach, after but fOui months Of respite.
| OF another month with an ~ in IL.
| Puny men are apt to exaggerute their own
| importance in the scale OF nature and to
think that they must be the OYSTER chief
foe. One cannot Interview an oyster,
| either because OF the deficiency or his vocal
| chords or the superiority Of his intellect,
| or both; butt have done the next best thing
| possible by conversing with Dr. Tarleton
II. Bean. who is authorized to speak for all
| the fiBny tribes and shelly clans.
| Er. Bean was long connected with the
work OF the United States Fish Commission
and is now engaged in remodeling the old
! Castle Garden. where Jenny Lind sang~and
where so many immigrants have passed
the gates Of the new world into gigantic
aquarium for the city of New York's park
commissio From the information DR..
Bean gave me ] realized that that prize
| IAIticLi freak, the star fish, the drum fish,
the sponge. the drills. wrinkles, crabs, toad
fish or sally growler.' and even the eel
grass, are all preyiDg upon the oysters
peace of mind and domestic happiness to
such an extent that man is rather their
| any than their foe in the fight
| There are some queer wrinkles for aid
ing the oyster against its enemies, Of
which heard for the first time in Dr.
Beans office Consider, for Instance, the
| device OF" Singing an oyster bed against
| the druniisb. The single is n marine
scarecrow. 1t consists OF a buoy at the
top, line, weight at the bottom aud a
Single hung midway so that the tide and
| " nF h. fian iufr
and over, a terrible porteut to the weak
| minded fish.
Singing is Jersey device OF purely
local use, l believe, for the foes of the
oyster are different in different waters.
Farther north there is the starfish, pec-
haps the most dreaded enemy of the oyster
mans pets. Upon the stariish the oyster
planter wages unceasinS war. Heis alwa vs.
| pulling up the starfish with his ''tangies'
and throwing out the beautiful five-rayed
creature to become ordinary ferti .iZcr
II the shinEle is the scarecrow. the tangles
are the wedding hoe of the sea crsR-
The aquatic moving machine is another
Jersey institution. Long eelgrass. whis.i
catches mud and silt. Threatens To destroy
any oyster bed in which it gets footing.
Hence the astute Jersey oyster raisers OF
under water contrivance which Will cut
eelgrass in eight feet of water or less, for
ward or backward and in a swath twelve
feet wide. The moving machine is a
scow. eight feet by twenty. carrying q
small steam engine i'll the middle. A knife
bar iikethlt OF an ordnar mo wiugmacbin,,.
but twelve feet long. is lowered to the
desired depth and operated by gearing
l xyt,t 10 no self
pays along staked line, shifted for each
swath. The knife bar is doubled, So that
the scow doesn't neei to he turned around.
but rides back and forth clipping eelgrass for
the tide to carry away.
The oyster crab is 4 picturesque kind
of fellow with more respectable Antiquity
than character. Plny speaks OF him as
the oysters doorkeeper. and the ancients
| fanoied that lie toiled as q Iurvcyor of
food o his companion. The oyster crab
is common down i'll South Carolna. which
las about the climate of Rome. but modern
writer's call Tim an impolite and grasping
fellow. He puts lis fingers in the oysters
mouth not to fend off enemies. as Phny
thought, nor to feed his chum as Plutarch
/ has il but to help himself to the oysters
breakfast. The South Carolinians call the
|
| TIE toadfish. or sally growler," is an
other dwcller in the sea that's not so popu-
lar as it's quaint name should make it. The
sponge is a nuisance only in Southern
waters.
| Tie oyster is in one respect unphilseO
ptical His tastes are artificial, Hethrives
best on civilized beds, prepared for him
by the cunning hand OF man. He may
<r,l
but should be removed thence and shifted
TO gravel or sandy bottom, where his taste
improves and he natures, rpens and is edu-
cated When finally taken up for the
market he is, after lying on deck awhile,
pus in a cage or float and sunk in partly
brackish water at the mouth OF some fresh
wa er stream for part of enc tide OILY.
or always less than twelve hours. After
his dry spell on deck, the oyster drinks"
freely and "spits OUT the sand or gravel
in his shell; or at any rate good deal
of it, Then he is raised and assorted,
eli her as box oyster Of reputable size.
cullen or n "cullcntine'-the latter
being a little fellow not counted but sold
by the bushel
Because OF the effect OF gravel in irnproy-
ing the oysters taste, there are~lmany
planters who have prepared semi-artiiicia
ripening beds, though nowhere in this COIN
try do the growers take such pains las, in
France, where in some instances the hot
tom of the sea is literally niacadamized over
broad shallow levels TO produce an ideal
ripening surface, aud where it is almost q
rule TO provide young oysters with incu.
bators. .t-.-> ,,.-.--
That is, they look like incubators; rough
frame work of timber holding sliding tiles
| side by side and one tier over another: on
the under side OF the tiles the young oysters
cling, happy in the high tide and daily in
spected at low tide by protecting man. The
French oysters, like all those in Europe
are small. The experiment of planting
American seed has been tried, but the
Yankees find European waters too salt
| and do not thrive. Our oyster beds are al,
| ways in bays or river mouths, sheltered
| waters, half fresh and half salt. and the
! natives do not take kindly to undiluted brine.
| But it is in such towns as Cancale, and
| Arcachon that the French, whose part I'd
! the world seems to be to show other folks
| how to do things, have devoted to oystel
culture the most exact science.
To see oysters growing on the branches