The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1907-07-29
GUARDING THE Pearl mussEt.
Scientists Ttke, Tn The Question Of
Artificial ProDagatinn.

One Of the tasks the government has
set for itself this Summer is to find out
why the pearl bearing mussels of the
rivers OF the Mississippi region are dis
appearing and to try to pr pagate
them. A commission headed By Prof.
Faul Bartsch of Burlington has JUS BE-
gun d thorough search Of the Miss ssip-
pi and its tributaries to find out all
about the mussel The mussel is highly
regarded in that section of the eGun-
try. Not only has it been the basis Of
a very profitable industry in the way
of furnishing raw material for button-
making, Of which Amsterdam has two
of the largest Factories, but It has en-
riehed d great many who have merely
taken up the hunt in the hope Of find
ing valuable pearls
Mussels have been found in largo
quantities adong the upper Mississippi
but pearls are few and far between.
due possibly to the fact that the tenn
ptrature Of the water is not 50 favor
able to the propagation of the sing
the technical name for the psarl-bear
ing secretions Down along the White
and Arkansas rivers hundreds Of thous-
ands of dollars worth Of pearls have
been found iii the last five years, In
Arkansas mare than a million dollars
worth Of them have ben unearthed in
that time, Dredging for pearls is very
largely q business matter these days.
Dredges are used on the deep places,
and on the bars the river bottom is
plowed up and the mussels brought in
scows and opened. The Shells are saved
and sold to the button factories that
have sprung UP in every town and VIII
lage. These shells more than pay the
expenses Of the work, and the pearls
found are clear profit Several comfort
able fortunes have been built up this
way.
There are hundreds of button fac
tories all along the upper Mississippi.
Wherever there are sandbars and shall
low places the work of dredging for
mussels goes on. The supply is getting
shorter every year, and to preserve the
sources and propagate the mussel the
last congress was induced to make a
liberal appropriation. Shells by the car
load are shipped to the factories and
there they are made into blanks and
buttons. A big business in shipping the
blanks to Germany has been built UP
in the last few years. The expedition is
to examine into the habits and condi-
tions of the mussel and to determine
what can be done to save this lucrative
industry. 1t is intended to visit in
launch every sand bank and slough, ev
cry bayou and tributary from st. Paul
to the Arkansas, In an interview Prof,
Bartsch says;
1.-THE difficulties Of artificial propaga-
ton of the mussel are many. These
may be overcome, but at present we do
not know sufficient Of the mussel and
its habits to be able to form definite
opinion. It is a very simple thing to
turn millions of eggs into fish, but the
egg Of the mussel passes through an
other stage before it becomes a mussel.
After Matching it is a parasite which
attaches itself to a fish. Now While one
nlussel may produce $4,000 eggs, but a
very small number of these will be
Matched. That is one of the things the
epedition will learn something about. If
artificial propagation shall not prove
practicable, perhaps by protecting the
fish and the mussels and having a
closed season when mussels must not
be disturbed the desired results may
be attained n-Amsterdam Recorder.