Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1901-05-17

raise crabs for the market in little
ranches of their own, which are arti-
fetal bays about three feet deep, in
which old crabs are placed to spawn.
Within two hours there may have
been 100 or more developed, and if
left alone they would be eaten by
the old fellows, or, perhaps, killed
in fighting.
Those who fish for hard crabs for
sport merely tie piece of bait, con-
sisting of meat or fish, to good
stout line long enough to reach the
bottom with a sinker. The crab
grasps the bait, and may he hauled
near the surface, when it is necessary
to catch him with dip net on the
end of pole. Sportsmen say that
the best way to cook them ia to put
them on in cold water and let it
come to the boil, with plenty of salt
in the water.
Hard and eoft crabs are identical,
their relative conditions being entire
ly effected by the tide and the moon.
During the three summer months
crabs shed at the change of the moon,
and they are then soft until several
tides pass over them, rendering their
shells hard again. In the transitory
state, or when in the process of she'd
ding, they are called CLUSTERS"
rather an appropriate name, as they
"bust" out of their shells, and are
as large again almost when they
escape. Indeed, one can scarcely
believe sometimes that the great fat
soft crab lying beside much smaller
shed, could have come out of it, but,
it is so, for this is their manner of
growing, and, unlike people, when
they get "too big for their skin,"
they discard ii, and swell out.
The value of the soft crab to the
epicure depends entirely upon the
shortness of the time which it has
been out of the hard shell. The
new shells begin to growat once, and
every hour thereafter detracts from
the soft crabs value. When the
crab is preparing to moult and it's
shell is loosening it is known as
conner, a long conner or q short conner.
When its shell has begun to crack
it is called a shedder, in which stage
it is highly priced by fishermen as
bait. When it has reached the she'd
der stage, if it is not in a ranch, it
seeks q shallow inlet or shore, where
there is plenty of grass, crawls out
of its shell and remains in fear and
trembling. One of Its brethren in
the enjoyment of a hard shell hap
pening along would promptly devour
it Crabs are prolific aud plentiful,
but the soft shell ones are so delicate
and sensitive to atmospheric changes
tAat it is only by exercising the
utmost care that they can be properly
packed for successful shipment.
Those packed for long distances-the
Pacific Coast and even Europe-must
be selected of medium size and abso-
lutely perfect form, and placed on
single layers on the soft bed of grass
about two inches deep, in trays built
like those of trunk. put inside of
a refrigerator, the top tray contain
ing slab of ice of thickness proper
tionate to the distance.
The U. s. Fish Commission has
recently had under consideration the
idea of Matching crabs artificially,
and will no doubt do SO if the supply
begins to run short. The eggs can
be Matched without trouble by plac-
ing them in glass jars through which
by a siphon arrangement sea water
is kept constantly flowing, similar to
the Matching of lobster eggs. The
lobster egg, however, is about LIS
of an inch in diameter, while the
crab egg is infinitesimally small.
Seen through microscope on en,erg-
ing from the egg, which will be after
about weeks Matching, crab looks
like cross between mosquito and
a flea. He has fiat, irregular body.
with long proboscis, longer tail,
long, swimming appendages, with
spine covered, toe-like branches at
the ends, and small eyes, not at
tached to stalks, as in later life, but
fixed fiat upon the head. All these
peculiarities are compressed within
a small space, and in this stage he
swims around mostly at the surface
of the water.
| At an early age he begins to shed
his skin, and, having accomplished
this feat a few times, he has increased
in size, his eyes have appeared on
stalks, legs like those of shrimps have
developed, and nippers have been
added to the pair of front legs. The
tail and proboscis have nearly, if not
entirely, disappeared, and he begins
to grow at rapid rate. Being nearly
ready to begin business as crab, he
abandons swimming as a profession
and takes to the bottom, goes forag-
ing along the shores, or attaches him.
self to floating seaweed. He literally
grows by shedding.
| Aa faaS 90 hia .rar.uaa..4a loao....