The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-05

cray1sh, which swarm naturally in Ire
lana waters, would afford them a prof
ltaple export into France, where there is
great dearth of them. owing to factories
ana owing to the demand. And the reason
OF this lies In Paddy's odd hatred of any
put a rev recognized kinds Of food-cer-
tam hsn' few sorts of meat, potatoes,
ana one or two vegetables more. He will
not touch a crayhsh-not he It is Ike
SPIDER or a shcorpion or peesth, the
shpawn OF peesth.
but ne might have the gumption to net
crayhsh and export them for the frog
eaters perhaps one of these days he viii
one OF the popular errors concerning
cfayhsh may account for this neglect
namely, the sort of food it likes. 1t is
oIteh thought that crayfsh feed on rot
tAns hshi ignorant people will use dead
hsh or bad meat as bait for this little ma
lauuer' ana with small effect. The cray
Hsh burrows like our fiddler or soldier
cfao' IN holes in the banks, and sallies out
from time TO time for food; but he is
very alhefent from the fiddler in that he
dlslkes rotten meat and cannot stand
much sunlight If kept in shallow wa
.er' where he cannot hide from the light
ne soon dies yet he will live for days in
d dry' dark cellar without water. In
me natural state crayfish vary from dark
onVe 10 req, not so vivid as the color
wheh cooked, but distinctly red. They
- ~ nave q nue. somewhat lInlLdtlNe
OF the color of the bottom on which they
I'VE; those in sandy streams being lighter
IN tone than those which live on messy
bottoms. They feed on slugs, snails, and
other small water creatures, and on wa
Ter pants; also on clover, lucerne. and
e srgeh peas, devouring greedily young
IlSh ana frogs if they can catch one
breeders feed them daily with boiled tur-
lllps' carrots and good meat. Rotting fish
OF meat they do not touch; perhaps when
caught near such things they are lying
III Walt Tor the small fish that nibble at
ton.
The growing of crayfsh for the market
IS naturally practiced extensively in Ger
many but II cannot be SAID that it is car
rleu on so scientifically as the cultivation
OF the oyster. For one thing. the Young
efayhsh mas too many enemies, beginning
win IT'S own mother, who is a confirmed
canhlDal; 1t may be because crayfish al
ways consume their shells when they shed
them, and the mother takes the little cray
nsn LOT DIT OF her shell Then the larger
hSh pursue crayhsh, as do also storks
cranes and bitterns, foxes and weasels
Even dogs and cats easily contract the
haolt OF repairing by night to the crayfish
pohd Tor change of diet But next to
the pollution of the rivers by factories. the
greatest cause for the lack of crayfish is
the superstition about the letter in the
month FROM believing that oysters are
unwholesome in May, June. July and Au-
gust, the people here concluded that those
must be Just the months in which cray
nsh are particularly good; from that point
they nave departed to the further assump-
tlon that the crayfish is not so Wholesome
IN the other eight months, when the oyster
is voted innocent of guile
Inc result is that during the very months
that should be closed against the cray
hshefy, these little creatures are fished to
determination. An excellent authority
VINO grows crayfsh on his own proDerty
informs me that September is the pairing
month Whiie May, June, July and August
are the months during which the little
crayilsh are attached 70 the mothers fins
october and November are. therefore. the
proper months for crayfishinE But he de-
spalrs OF being able to convince the mar
ket men, or the public, that a close season
is necessarily in the very four months
when the crustacean takes the place of
the mollusk. If properly fed, the crayfish
breed quickly and afford a high rate of
interest on the capital invested; as long
as the water is clear and has a slight
movement the small outlay is repaid sew
eral hundredfold. Crayfish have gone I'D
in the Berlin market from 5 cents a dozen
h1teen years ago to H.25 dozen at pres
ent; they are, therefore, one of the most
profitable goods in the fish line.
In the Mark of Brandenpurg great harm
has come TO crayfsh through the potato
spirit factories or spirit burneries. In or
der to have money to burn in Germany
you must either boil beat sugar or roast
potatoes into alcohol. At these "burne-
ries," which are generally by the side of
lake or river the refuse is thrown into
the water and forms large banks. A small
quantity of such stuff is not by any means
bad for the fish of all sorts. singularly
eli no -
nourishes masses of 'plankton," one of
the lowest forms of invisible life. which
furnishes food for minute crustaceans,
and these in turn, make crayfsh and
other fish flourish and reproduce them
selves quickly. But when 1t lies in big
banks, the gases it develops appear to en-
courage disease; at least, on those lakes
of the Mark where the crayfish pestilence
first appeared there were sugar refineries
and potato "burneries," and fair in
ference is that this kind of pollution starts
the disease. II is, OF course, more danger
Gus than the poisoning of the water with
acids, or with mineral or vegetable poi
sons since the latter merely XIII such life
as they meet, while the pestilence once
started makes the waters in question I'M
inhabitable for crayfish for many years.
The toothsome escargot of the French
meets with scant favor in North Germany.
though it might be bred here quite as well
turbot, called the steinbutte, or else butte
or butte. Our word seems to have result
ed from a wrestling. on the part of the
Normans, with some word closely allied
to steinbutte. The American rainbow
trout has been introduced here with great
enthusiasm. The saunon trout is often
better than the famed salmon of the
Rhine, owing to its oelicate taste. 1 sup
pose Germany and Austria are the only
countries which breed the carp 80 perfec-
ton nowadays; Il is a coarse fish in itself
and needs as much care in its
feeding as mutton. The noblest breeds
are found in Galicia, but in France, Bel
gium, and Germany, there are gourmands
who take great pride in their private carp
ponds, and find a good market for what
they do not consume themselves. Like
most Europeans, the Germans prefer the
small, coppery oyster of the North sea to
our big, smooth oyster which is. l think
most gourmets will allow, too much fat
tened in brackish water to retain the best
flavor Hence the little oysters one gets
from private beds along the sound or on
the Jersey coast are the ne plus ultra in
the oyster line, having none of the taste
OF vertlgris one gets in Europe, but
sharD salt nutty flavor which can scarce