The Washington bee., 1899-05-06
ABOUT THE OYSTER.
BECOMES GREEN ON PLANTF FooDANo
FATTENS ON FRESH WATER.

| Aho VporAIlon OF "tJOattng the Blvalve-
The Green Ones Popular In Europe
Freshening Reduces Their Life One Half
| Their Value as q Food.
Persons who eat oysters frequently
| have doubtless observed that now and
then the oysters set before them are
more or less green in color. There is a
common prejudice against green oys-
| ter. Some persons attribute the color
ing to disease and others to parasites or
| to the presence of copper Scientific in
vestigation has demonstrated that this
"greening" of oysters is in reality due
to the fact that the oysters have fed on
green plants Of simple structure, which
are sometimes found in abundance in
brackish or salt water.
c. F. Langworthy, of the Office of ex-
pertinent stations of the United States
department of agriculture, says that, in
the opinion of those who have investi-
gated the matter carefully, the green
color in oysters is harmless In Europe
green oysters are more highly priced
than others. The green color may be
removed by placing the oysters for a
time in water where the green plants
are not abundant.
1t is a common practice OF oyster
dealers instead of selling the oy sters in
the condition in which they ale taken
from the beds in salt water 10 place
them for a period of about for;y-eight
hours in fresh water in order t. fatten
them. The oystermen call this opera
tion floating or laying out" The
process gives the oyster plumpness and
rotundity, its bulk and weight being so
increased as to materially enhance it's
selling value. The belief is common
among oystermen that this "fattening"
is due to actual gain of flesh and fat,
and that the nutritive value of the oys-
ter increased by the process.
Oysters lose much of their salty flavor
in floating" however, and it is an es-
tablished fact that if the "fattened"
oysters are left too long on the floats
they become lean again. Careful ex-
periments have shown that oysters
water and placed in fresh water actual
ly gain in weight. This IL due largely
to the fact that they lose weight and
gain a considerable amount of water.
But there is an accompanying loss of
nutriments. When in their natural
condition oysters contain from one
eighth to one-fifth more nutritive ma
terial than when fattened.
1t is interesting to note that the gov
ernment's experiments, conducted at
the New Jersey stations, thus far have
shown that oysters freshened by float
ing" will not remain alive as long as
those taken DIRECTLY from salt water
Freshening really reduces the life
period of an oyster one-half In the
opinion of many consumers the i'm
provment in appearance and flavor of
an oyster due to the dilution of the
salts more than colrT ensates for the
loss in nutritive value. Prof. Lang
worthy remarks: "Often flavor has a
value which cannot be estimated in
dollars and cents"
most any other common food material,
as regards both the amount and the re-
lative proportions of nutrients. Gener-
ally speaking, a quart of oysters con-
tains on an average about the same
quantity of actual nutritive substances |
as quart of milk, or three-fourths of |
a pound of beef, two pounds of fresh I
Goldfish, or one pound of bread. The /
nutritive substance of an oyster con-
tains considerable protein, the sub
stance whose principal function is to
make or repair blood, muscle, tendon,
bone, brain and other nitrogenous mat
ter. Apparently as the oyster grows |
older, at least up to certain time, not
only do the proportions of flesh and
liquids increase more rapidly than the
shells, but the proportion of nutrients
n the edible part increases also. For
100 pounds of young oys-
ers in the shell appear to contain less
If flesh and of liquids than 100 pounds
If older ones, and when both have been
'hucked pound of meat from the
shells of the Older oysters would con-
ain more nutriment than a pound from
he younger.
Investigation has shown that. con-
iidering the edible portion of the oyster
lfter it has been removed from the
shell, the differences in different speci-
mems are much greater than is com
nonly supposed. This is clearly appar-
mt when a comparison is made of
ither the flesh or liquor of different
pecimens, or the whole edible portion
# the meats and liquor together. The
percentage of water in the edible por-
ion of different specimens of oysters
which were analyzed for the United
states fish commission varied from SO
o 81 percent, and average 81 per cent.
n other words, the nutritive material
q a quart of solid" oysters varied
rom two and three-quarters to five and
ne-third ounces. The man who buys
ysters in the shell pays for an enor-
nous percentage of waste material.
he average of thirty-four specimens
I oysters in the shell, for instance.