The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-11-10
THE Tome OF THEOYS7BR
Army Of Men and Millions Of
Dollars in the Business
Along the Atlantic
Coast.

the oyster Industry today is by far the
most extensive of the fishing interests of
this country, it is peculiarly fitting that
the Atlantic Coast delegates to the Inter-
national Fishery Congress, which will
meet at Tampa, Fla. in January next,
should urge special attention to the pre-
servation and preparation of the great
American bivalve. Much has already
been accomplished toward assisting ma
ture to keep up the supply of this delicate
and n~ourishing food product by legislation
but educational methods are necessary TO
the restoration of 8 many natural beds,
which have been almost destroyed by the
reckless manner in which oyster fishing
has been carried on in the past.
But few of the thousands of J~erseymen
who create the demand in this State
have ever stopped to think how many peo-
pie are employed or how much capital is
engaged in supplying the markets with
oysters. In 1894 the industry employed
g., rs persons, and the product yielded
$40. 226, 152. The actual fishermen numbered
A., 1855, and the shoremen, 1896. The value
of the Z, 600 large vessels engaged amount
ed to 50. s17, 400, but in addition to these
there We're Is, 200 smaller boats of various
types.
The International Fish Congress in its
study of the best means to protect he
oyster will necessarily have TO study the
conditions under which the bivalve is
propagated. The ova, or ''spat" is pro-
duced and fortified by the same individ-
ual, each male oyster after three years
growth becoming a female. During May,
June and July, every mature oyster IS
capable of becoming the parent of hun
dreds of thousands of others. The spats,
when first visible, are little red specks
about the size of small pin heads. They
are Matched in the folds OF the gill, and
when elected to shift for themselves are
coated with a creamy paste which har-
dens into a delicate shell upon coming in
contact with salt water. Then the spats
select their homes, fastening upon any
hard, clean object they can find.
Oysters that start out in life on a gravel
bottom grow broad, deep and massive, as
10 the Shrewsbury, Rockaway Saddle
Rock and York river oysters. The Rap
~pahannock and Chincoteague, raised on a
solid plum blue colored mud bottom, have
a thin, fine shell, as hard and translucent
as porcelain, and The Lynn Haven. Plan
tation Creek and Hampton Bar have a
heavy, crusted shell. full of perforations.
All these and other varieties may be the
offspring of the same parent, for the diff
ference in form, character and flavor is
due only to the difference in sea bottom
and shore drainage from vegetation. Over
one hundred varieties are gathered in
Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, and
they are all said to be fatter than those
found elsewhere on the Atlantic coast;
probably because of the numerous springs
of fresh water which find outlet into the
bay. -
The tough part of the oyster, generally
known as the eye, is the muscle With
which, he closes his shell. Among his
most bitter and relentless enemies is the
"borer," who starts with mathematical
precision to drill a hole through the shell
directly over the muscle. thus separating
oysters mouth opens When this is COM
pleted the borer is frequently pounced
upon and captured with his plumber by u
star fish.
When oysters are dredged from the beds
they are naturally charged with briny
water and are more or less muddy, being
frequently gorged with sand. To fit them
for eating they are placed on a float,
which consists of a 1at-bottomed boat
about 80 feet in length, built of white
pine, six feet wide and three feet deep. the
sides being perforated to allow the water
to enter. The float is then anchored at
the mouth of a stream of fresh water,
always at high slack water, where the
oysters are allowed to rest and drink for
two tides. This gives the bivalves time to
dislodge the mud and san and at the
same time their appearance is improved
by bloating. Moreover, they are more
easily opened after thus floating for a
while.
The reason for %s'drinking'' oysters at
high slack tide is that it would be in
furious to their quality to bring them into
contact with fresh or slightly brackish
water too abruptly. At high slack the
water at the mouth of a stream is quite
salt, but as the tide falls the fresh water
running down to the bay commingles
with the salt until at low tide the water
is quite fresh. Then the oysters are re-
moved from the float, assorted into .eul-
lens" primes and extras" according
tO size. hacked in barrels and Skinned TO
market.
The State of Virginia, Maryland, North
and South Carolina, New Jersey and New
York have passed legislation striving to
foster the multiplication of oysters by
protecting the beds, and the persistent eff
forts of the Fish Commission of the Unit
ed States have done much to bring about
better conditions than those of former
years.
The up-to-date oyster bed owner is a
practical scientific cultivator, not only OF
sea bottom but of spat. As warm weather
season by fixing up the stools" which af-
ford resting places for the spat. In June
the mature oysters are obtained by dredg-
ing with a coarse meshed apparatus, and
are planted in a prepared bottom. The
.istoolS" which consist of oyster shells,
clean pebbles and stones, are placed in the
p~ropagating beds for the spat to cling to.
The infant oyster is visible about a fort
night after election, when he strikes d
stool. His growth for the first six months
is slow, but after that his size increases
AS to the dredging boats, those used on
the Delaware River and bay, and along
the Jersey coast and Long Island, are of
light draft, wide beam and long head,
built sharp in the bow and with a large,
square, o~ver-hanging stern. The schooner
rugged vessels carry crews of from three
to seven men. Those in use in the Chesa-
peake and south from Cape Charles Light
to Beaufort are known as "bug-eyes"
and are constructed on rougher water