The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-03-19
THE PUGET SOUND OYSTERS.
Good Results From the Transplantinl
 of Eastern Seed.

Good Results From the Transplanting
 of Eastern Seed.
 Oysters farming is one of the profit able industries on the shores of Puget
 sound. This picturesque inland water
 is an arm of the Pacific ocean extend- | ing from the Straits of Fuca into the
 wilderness of western Washington.
 It's many bays and inlets cover large
 basin lying between the Cascades and l Olymphic mountains. The great for
 ests of pine. spruce and cedar complete | ly surround the placid waters and
 make an ideal home for shell fish of
 every variety. Among these. the little
 oysters are the greatest for propagat- 1 ing on the farms
 The native oysters are small and un-
 like those of the Chesapeake bay
 They are known thoughout the North
 west as the Olympias. This name was
 derived from the state capital. at which
 point the oysters were first grown for commercial purposes. A pint measure
 will hold several dozen Olympia oys- ters. They are sold by the quantity
 and not by the dozen. The farmers collect and sort them before market ing. The smallest are thrown back in-
 to the water to grow, while the large ones are put in sacks. weighing about 199 pounds each, and shipped. The
 average value of sack is reckoned at $s.50.
 A recent official report shows that
 nearly 1000 people are engaged in oyster
 farming along the banks of Puget sound. The oysters are planted in spe- cially prepared beds and left to mature. The districts in which the business is most profitable are where little frost l come S. A slight freeze is as injurious to the oyster crop as to the potato or grain fields. The oysters are kept in shallow water, where the high tides do not disturb them and carry the beds out into the deep bays. For this pur- l pose ponds are constructed on the tide flats and the small oysters grown in the enclosures.
 Many of the oyster farmers have fields transplanted with the large east ern bivalves. These are supposed to be
 thesmost caluable of any produced on
 the waters of Puget sound. The seed | comes from Baltimore. It is shipped in barrals and planted in the fields made l LOl tue puIpUSt. "A udTTel CQSLS dbUul $9, with the freight prepaid. It con- tains approximately 15,000 seed. These seed mature into marketable oysters in three years. Growers estimate a loss | of 20 per cent. and then harvest about | 12,0G0 oysters, valued at $175. The cost of growing, sorting and preparing for | market is placed at $f1 per barrel. An acre of good oyster land furnishes 1 space for planting about 35 barrels of eastern seed. At the rate of cost for
 planting and handling one barrel and the corresponding profit, the income from an acre is enormous Yet the in dustry is in it's infancy. The market | is never fully supplied, and the cities of I the interior seldom get shipments of 1 these oysters The large eastern oys- 1 ters, when three years old. have big 1 fine shells. They are shipped in sacks | holding eight dozen each. The cimmis- l sion merchants pay about IS cents per
 dozen for the best oysters. They are of the blue Point variety, and are sold as Toka Points, Washington Corre- spondence of the Country Gentleman.