The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1899-11-10
A visit from willapa oystermen.s


The two Pacific county oystermen will
recommend it to the Willapa harbor
men engaged in the industry.
Both Mr.. Brown and Mr.. Stewart
indorse the plan OF Fish, Commissioners
Little to sell the natural oyster beds
of the state as Che best means of pre-
serving the industry. They state the
sale of the beds would result in the
preservation of the Willapa harbor in
dustry and much better care would be
taken of the beds.
| Mr.. Stewart has been experiment
ing with the propagation of Eastern
oysters, and has met with some sue
cess. He is bringing out two cars OF
Eastern oysters to transplant in his
cultivated beds at Tokeland and ex-
poets to show remarkable growth of
the bivalves. The two brought to Ia
coma several shells of Eastern oysters
of one years growth. They show de-
velopment which is remarkable and
the two oystermen state that when
the oysters have been in the state
waters for year they are even better
developed than those from the East.
II am satisfied the park system,
which could be successfully tried sew
eral places on Willapa harbor, is the
one which should be adopted" said
Mr.. Stewart yesterday. ri believe
Eastern oysters under such plan
could be successfully reproduced in
the waters of this state. The expert
ments of Mr.. Heilberger have demon
strated that the system is success.
"For six or seven years he has been
experimenting with the system. At
first he could not raise as many oys-
ters as could the men on the natural
and cultivated beds of Oyster bay, and
they were inclined to be skeptical re-
garding his work. But this season,
with seven acres of lan1 in the system,
he has taken off an average of 800
sacks per acre, a greater percentage in
the yield than can be secured else
where in the state. This shows the
success of the system.
"He is able to plant oysters thicker
than we could on cultivated beds. If
we were to plant them as thick as he
does large number would die, but
his oysters all seem to grow we'll.
There are several places on the harbor
where the park system could be used
to good advantage"
~ think Fish Commissioner Titles
plan of selling the natural oyster beds
is good one," said Mr.. Brown dis
cussing that plan. "There is no doubt
in my mind that if the natural oyster
beds on Willapa harbor had been
transferred to private ownership the
industry would have profited by the
change. Say all the owners of cult
waited beds and the men in the oyster
beds were the owners of portions of
the natural beds. They would natur-
ally protect them and protect them
better than the state has.
"When storms come up the oysters
are piled up in drift on the natural
beds. At present no one has interest
enough in the matter to go out and
lay out the oysters again. Under
private ownership the oysters would
be more carefully attended to and
many which have been lost would be
saved. W. would probably, too, build
breakwaters, which would prevent the
loss of oysters in such storms"
To this Mr.. Stewart assented.
Fish Commissioner Little has a plan
OF opening oysters at the beds and saw
ing the shells. He said yesterday:
II watched the opening of q large
number of oysters on Samish bay and
kept account of the young oysters
which were lost in the opening away
from the beds. / found that an aver
age of three and third young oysters
inside the shells of the full grown oys-
tiers were thrown away when the oys-
tiers were opened. If the oysters were
opened at the beds, these could be
placed back again and would probably
be saved.
Opened oysters could be shipped
in air tight cans with ice surrounding
the cans, and would arrive in market
in good condition."
It is probable the output of Willapa
harbor this year will amount to from
$1,000 to $4,000 sacks. At present the
shipments from the harbor beds are
averaging TOO sacks week. This
average has been maintained since
September 1 andwill possibly be in
creased. At this rate the OUTPUT for
the year would be close to 80, GOO.
CA0W0RTA.
DsantA Ih kid VI nlw Aims Buuif