The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-07-09

OF crabs Is due almost entirely
TO the extreme cold weather of last
winter At the lowest estimate the blizzard
cut off the crab crop fully one-thlrd and
many dealers say one-half. A few weeks
after the blizzard the tide and winds COW
cred the shores and marshes with dead
Crabs. The crab is very susceptible 10 ex-
treh.es of temperature. At this season they
inhabit shallow water but with the coming
of cold weather they seek deeper water and
burrow in the mud. entering a condition
of lowered vitality until spring.
GROWTH OF THE BUSINESS.
The first shipments Of any Importance
from this section were made in 1887. when
the value CT the catch was about $4,000 In
that year seven hundred persons were en-
gagged in the catch and not more than four
hundred boats employed. There is no ques-
ton but that the output this season will
reach fully $4,000. The number of boats
now employed will exceed 1900 and twice
that number of men are engaged directly
in the fishery, to say nothing Of hundreds
of females engaged in picking crab meat
from the hard shells in the crab meat fac
tories. The price of crab meat has advanced
20 per cent. and large quantities are shipped
in bulk to New York and other cities for
mense amount of phosphorus in crab meat
1t has been found difficult to prepare 1t sue
cessfully for canning There is now fac
tory here which has a capacity Of eight
hundred cases a day. but the difficulty this
season has been to get a suficiency 10
keep the factory under Roadway. The crabs
are killed by being placed in a large steam
chest or boiler. where they remain over
MI nd he dau he iS
tracted by women and girls. Twenty cents
an average swift hand can pick nine gallons
per day. Hampton, Va, has the only other
crab meat canning factory in the United
States. Most of the crab meat is packed
in tin buckets and shipped in ice, but even
at that 1t will keep only a few days. Hard
crabs do not require the care in packing
and shipping which soft crabs need. They
are simply crowded into large boxes and
barrels, covered with wooden strips or sack
cloth, and shipped to their destination.
usually without the use of ice or sea weed.
The mortality amounts to practically moth
ing. Owing TO their hardness they can be
sent longer distances to many of the interior
cities of the country. The average gross
price received is 60 cents per hundred
The crabbers are a rough and hardy set
and are always ready for a rough-and- tum-
BILE fight when they have cause to believe
that they are not getting square deal
from one another or from representatives of
packing houses and commission men. They
exact the very squarest dealing, and when
once they are convinced that an effort has
been made to cheat them they will have
nothing further to do with the party who Is
believed to be guilty. In their Runners"
they are entirely at home. and can earn
from Sl2 to $40 weekly in the grabbing seas
on. A majority of the boats are small.
open sailboats, but there are a number of
hat-bottom, board-built bateaux and skiffs
and quite a number of sloop-rigged deck
boats. From o'clock until after sun up is
a busy and interesting scene around the
wharves, for il Is between these hours of
the early morning that the crabbers start
on their fishing trips. They begin return
ing early in the afternoon and sell their
catch to the shippers. Few of the crabbers
ship their catch themselves. Dredges,
scrapers and dipnets are extensively used,
but many crabbers prefer the ''trotline,'
which is baited with tripe. Substantially
the same mode of grabbing is used for both
soft and hardshell crabs, but there are far
less men engaged in the capture Of the lat
ter as the former is more profitable. The
average catch of hard crabs per man Is
necessarily larger than in the soft crab
fishery owing to larger facility with which
lizards" can be handled.
W. G. NICHOLAS.