The record-union., 1899-01-30
ULTIVAT|NG OYSTERS.
DESCRIPTION OF A LONG ISL
AND OYSTER FARM.
The Fashionable Oyster and How
He is Handled From Seed
to Table.

to Table.
over the bay back of Long Beach,
ITS inlets awash with the Iull Tue,
brisk breeze is blowing ana dliii
oyster sloop is cutting smartly along.
The morning is yet in its earnest houiss
the pink hardly yet out OF the SKY
Three sturdy oystermen-the Doxeys-
are Captain, crew and bo'sun's mate,
of the craft, and their passenger Is
hound with them cut to the oyster
beds TO track to his lair the Oyster de
Luxe. the Fashionable Oyster"
Indeed the trip is worth the while. For
amazingly little, after all, is known
about that silent member of society
who graces our dinner tables, our hrst
course being his last. Not that there
is romance in the oyster, though Rich
ard Brinsley Sheridan did state dis
tinctly that one might be crossed in
love- But there is picturesqueness
from the very moment the seed oyster
is planted, all through the details OF
this curious farming under water, in
GLIDING the drinking act that an
oyster is quite capable of performing.
and must do Gf he be a salt water
OYSTER before he is fit for the market
until, properly iced, he is dexterously
turned out on the half shell.
On the readers attention it must first
of all be impressed that there are oys-
ters and oysters. There is even a
smart set among them. That is to
say, there is the oyster of fashion, and
the oysters not Endorsed. This fash
L. - lot nf 1,n CO
ciety of ourselves alter it, The quest
was somewhat novel. 1t is the fash
fonable oysters biography, done for
<the first time, his start in life and hts
finish.
Right sturdily did the little craft
eareen, in the midst of a bay whose
northern boundary was a green farm
ing country, whose south was thin
strip of sand bar beyond which rocked
the ocean. In the waters through
which the sloop SKINNED lurked a cool,
delicious green, to catch which one
leaned far over the gunwale. There
were of sudden the sharp rumble Of
a sail coming down, a cry from the
bow, an answer from the stern. The
sloop abruptly moved around and
swung, her progress checked, upon the
waters.
Here v are.' said the eldest of the
Doxeys
But where? North, south. east, west,
in every direction for a mile and more,
there were only the tossing waters of
the bay. One feature of the seascape,
hardly noticeable at first, finally be-
gan to strike the eye-thin, flexible
poles sticking out of the water here
and there. As one looked, and looked
intently, patches of waving brownish
grass commenced to grow up above
the surface. Beyond a wind and wave
tossed clunp of it appeared, now an
other where few moments before there
had been only little pillows.
I'VE are on the edge of our oyster
beds now" sung out another of the
only two feet deep. The tide is run
ming out rapidly. In half an hour the
beds Will be uncovered
DO y see that shanty on that point
of land there?" put in the third That's
where we keep a man day and night to
guard these oyster beds. He must
keep watch out for oyster thieves;
they may come any time This man
has gun, and he would use it, too.'
For under these tossing waters. un-
covered for hours at time, there is
much property. a crop that takes long
to mature. some portions of it a year,
even two years. and this crop has many
natural enemies. The sheltering waves
themselves carry away in their ebb
and flow, many hundred young oysters.
and in addition to these lurk sea stars,
mussels, the 'borers," and periwinkles.
the 'borers'' actually drilling tiny holes
into the shells, the periwinkles sucking
the oysters life away Even the
greatest care will not keep the beds en-
tirely free when these destroying agen-
cies happen in a locality. They are
always present more or less; sometimes
there is plague of them With such
risks 1T is not to be wondered at that
the human oyster thief is the last straw
for these farmers of the waters.
The anchor thrown overheard. the
sloop rested idly in the little channel.
every moment growing more clearly
defined. The oystermen heaped into
the skiff that had been towing behind
empty bushel baskets, tongs and rakes.
A few moments more and, rubber
booted to the thighs. they strobe off
across what was now only few inches
of water, dragging the skiff along with
Them The backing away tide COM
menced to reveal the farm under the
waters of the bay.
1t was curious sensation to follow
these oystermen and patter through the
now miniature waves to the patch of
dry land, or almost dry, that had APP
peared. and each moment grew larger
On this very spot an hour before the
sloop had been tossing As. if an island
had arisen, and yet not exactly that.
For the ground walked on was only
too plainly water ground" and it was
readily to be realized that here was
indeed the bottom of the bay, that
oystermen and passenger stood in its
very center.
Somewhere the writer has heard
natural oyster beds airily spoken of
and has listened to tales of clustering in
which the bivalves We're merely gath
cred in as are shovelfuls of coin at a
Wall-street money changers. They
who tell such stories seem to have for
gotten that natural oyster beds exist
no longer and they do not know that
oyster culture has come to be a science
W. . . q q =