Evening journal., 1899-12-23
GREAT DEMAND
FOR OYSTERS
Crisheld Packers Are Now Buy
ing in Every Part Of the
Chesapeake Bay.
BECOME scARCER EVERY YEAR


AND, ALTHOUGH THEY ARE NOT
INJURIOUS, PEOPLE ARE PREJU-
DICED AGAINST THEM.
A dispatch from Crisheld Md today
says: The oyster packers in Crisfeld
have received excellent orders this
winter and had the oysters been more
plentiful and in prime condition the
business thus far could have been the
most profitable ever known in the
history Of the town. 1t is doubtless
TO the improved business conditions
in other places that this increased de-
mand for oysters is due.
The oysters are becoming scarcer In
Tangier and PocomOke sounds every
yearand II the packers had TO depend
upon this supply alone the industry
would not amount to much. Crlsheld,
however, buys oysters from all parts
OF the Chesapeake bay and It's tribu-
taries and the partial failure OF the
oyster beds and bars in the immediate
vicinity OF the town can never act as
a permanent check to its growth and
prosperity. Many Of the packers own
their boats and these sail all over the
bay and its tributaries for the purpose
of purchasing oysters. }. A. Subbs
owns several schoonors which do moth
ing but sail around 10 buy oysters
for the packing houses in Crisacld
This 10 the reason why planting has
not been an absolute necessity for the
people OF this section Oysters can be
dredged and purchased In other places
and the adjacent waters reserved for
the crab industry. Crisneld Will al
ways be a great oyster market as long
as there are oysters left anywhere I'm
the Chesapeake bay.
A great many Of the oysters are red
or bloody this season. Some OF tho
boats do not catch but 10 or - bushels
per day, and, although these are large
and fat. large per cent. of them will
be red. One OF the prominent packers
OF Crisield states that from q small
order he had shucked he was compel
ed TO throw 20 gallons away because
they were bloody. The cause Of this
coloring matter in the oysters is not
thoroughly understood, but the warm
weather may have something TO do
with IT, 1t Is nevertheless definitely
known that there is nothing injurious
In red oysters, and that. like those
green gilled, they seem 20 have a finer
flavor. However, everybody is preju-
diced against them. These red
oysters are being caught on both
sides OF the bay. The affection is
known as red gill" In 1895 and about
twenty years before that there
was the same condition Of
oysters In parts of the bay
There are various, surmises as to the
cause OF It. some supposing Il is due
to iron in the water.
There is not liable 70 be any legis-
lation proposed by the delegates or
senator frim Somerset county In tho
next state Legislature, unless, as Mr..
Dennis states, something she said about
the character OF the twelvemen who can
appear before a justice OF the peace and
swear away mans oyster lot. Many
think that the Dryden law should be
repealed and the state planting law
brought once more into operation.
The leading candidates for the posi-
tion Of oyster inspector for the Eas-
tern Shore OF Maryland are: John
Lewing, c. G. Sterling, James Rich
ardson, William Roach, William Muir
and Alexander Laird.
All these gentlemen except one, Mr..
Sterling, are citizens OF Crisheld. The
position pays $500 a year, and Is OF
the greatest Importance to the oyster
industry. The fact that there is so
much young growth in the Tangier
sound at present Is 10 be attributed to
the efforts OF the present incumbent
John Die. If the oysters were not
inspected all the young ones would
soon be on the shell piles.