The National tribune., 1902-09-18
The oyster Industry.
(Harper's Weekly.)

Nineteen States and Canada have
within few years, boosted the oyster
industry from something over five billion
bivalves annually to production of over
twelve billion.
Delaware Bay has apparently wrested
the oyster championship for production
frcm Chesapeake Bay. Therein the oys-
fairgrounds cover over 220 square miles,
engages over 600 vessels, and employs over
1000 men. Every acre of Delaware oys-
ters is estimated to pay an annual profit of
$50. The capital Of this industry is fitly
called Biyalve, with Venetian streets, all
debouching ON water-fronts, wharf-lined,
and covered with steel rails by railways
which wrest what traffic they can from
the sail and steam craft. Most of these
farmers" however, use little sloops and
luggers of their own. If the wholesaler
doesn't compete actively enough for the
product at the wharf, he loads his oysters,
hoists sail, and takes them to Philadelphia
for best prices. If the prices are unsatisfac-
tory, why, he stores his goods in floats,
or dumps them overheard, where he can
fish them out again when the market
booms. Your oyster goes right on growing
and fattening, like hotel bill which
works all the time, so what cares he of
the sea? New Jersey built up its oyster
industry from the bottom, so to speak.
First, it laid out its natural oyster-beds
to supply seed for all its citizen growers; ];
then it staked off the remaining areas,
and leased them to growers. The grower
takes his seed from the natural beds be-
twcen April 1 and June 10, in accordance
with tine terms of his special State license,
and transplants them on the grounds he
has leased. The seed-oyster is a little fel-
low, but in ten months has grown suffi-
ciently to be transplanted into deeper wa
ter, where it remains, sometimes for as
many as three years. or until it achieves
the proper commercial size and weight.
New York is naturally the largest oys-
ter-market in the world, both as con-
sumer and n universal supply depot. 1t
necessarily handles the crops of most of
the Atlantic coast, besioes having five or
six million human mouths to feed in city
and envirOhs. 1t handles millions of
bushels of oysters and CLAIMS annually.
The State waters supply the most noted
varieties of oysters in the world, such
as Blue Points" and "Rockaways," the
near Jersey shore assisting with .Shrews-
burys." ---si --
Connecticut, which revoiutionized meth
DDS of -Oyster-culture, leases upward of
1000 square acres for the purpose, and
holds it's own with other States Rhode
Island fosters its shell-fish industry, and
utilizes every square inch of water areas.
in which it resembles Holland. Its total
oyster area, however, is less than 1000
acres. In Massachusetts the industry is
new, but growing, and the demand for its
very salty-tasting "Cape Gods" and ''Buz-
zard Bays" is greater than its supply, so
that at times its bivalves have brought as
high as $12 per barrel. Cape Cod is the
northern limit Of the oyster-culture in the
United States.
Louisiana, where oysters are cheaper
than elsewhere, realizes about S1,000,O 900
annually from the industry. Its experts
claim, however, that capital refuses to in
terest itself, and lets 130,000,000 worth
Of oysters annually go to waste. They
claim that there are $50 square miles of
oyster-grounds never raked over, and vast
lodges or deposits of them never touched
except by inhabitants of the deep In
these subtropical waters the oyster is
large and fat, and capa-
BILE Of existing for weeks Oh rne sands in
the sun without water. In Florida. hun
lreds of miles of coast are similarly un-
utilized, although a growing industry has
been established. The other Southern |
coast States have each their industry, Gull |
in Virginia's crop of 1900, 900 |
bushels annually, used mostly for can
ling.