The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-12-14
SOFT SHELL CRABS.
One of the Profitable Forms of Fishing
 In the Chesapeake Bay.

From the Philadelphia Ledger.
 Soft shell crabs are becoming more plentiful in local markets, though they are still small and the price is high. Part of the supply comes from Jersey waters, but the whole country east of the Mis- sissippi gets most of it's soft shell crabs from the lower part of the Chesapeake. The warm and shallow sounds and in- lets of the bay fairly swarm with crabs from the middle of May to the middle of September, and from 12O0 to 15O0 boats and from 2500 to 5000 men are engaged in catching crabs for market. Fully 800 grabbing boats hail from the little ann phibious port of Crisfeld, Md, and there are other shipping points all up and down the bay in both Maryland and Virginia waters.
 Grabbing has been reduced to science in the Chesapeake, and 1t Is one of the most profitable forms of fishing The fishermen usually own their boats and outfits, and even those who work for wages are paid in proportion to the catch. The shadows of the bay are whitened all day long by the slowly cruising crab bers. Some fishermen use lines, but the drag Is most commonly used This is a light iron cage or scoop, which is cast overheard as the boat cruises in water from two to four feet deep. Dragging over the grassy bottom the scoop takes up crabs, mud and grass. From time to time 1t is drawn up and unloaded. When the season opens, about the first week of May, boat does well to catch 200 crabs a day. At the height of the sea- son, in July and August however, d catch of 1000 crabs a day is not unusual
 The sight of the grabbing fleet going out at sunrise and returning about sunset is one of the most picturesque of the Chesa- peake. The boats are usually the Dug eye" long, narrow and staunch, some with small cabins, others without and all with centerboards. Each has at least two men aboard. The crabbers earn fully the wages of skilled mechanics in their own region, and no industrious and sober crab ber need long be any mans hired man, for the waters are free to him and he can easily save enough out of his earnings to buy a boat and the necessary outfit.
 The Chesapeake crab packer may have an office ashore, but always has a little house and yard out in the shadows of the bay The house Is to receive the newly caught crabs. The yard is lightly piled enclosure where hard shell crabs brought in by the fishermen are placed in order that they may shed their shells, and thus make themselves ready for market. The crabs thus caged are placed in fiat slated frames whence they can not escape. and immersed in the waters of the piled in- closure From day to day the slated frames are examined, in order that the packer may know what crabs have shed their shells. Those which have are taken out for packing and shipment and the others are returned to tbenwater. It may be anywhere from a mo{eth to a day be- fore a captive crab sheds his shell.
 The soft shell crabs are graded accord ing to size, packed in the familiar shallow crates with plenty of damp seaweed and shipped north by the thousands and tens of thousands. Shallow draft steamboats which come down into these waters from Baltimore call at the little crab-packing stations and carry away the laden crates. Others are sent in sailir<- craft to the mainland for shipment by rail The Chesapeake soft shell crabs are known in the markets of hundred cities as far west as Denver and as far north as Buffalo