Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1908-06-05
FISH AND OYSTERN NOTES.

Representative Flood introduced
a bill in Congress appropriating $25, 600
for the establishment of fish hatchery
in Virginia. The sum proposed to be
appropriated is to include the total cost
of site, buildings and ponds.
In their native element fish are seldom
discovered to be asleep. That is because
many Species, particularly in Southern
waters, change color to correspond with
Their surroundings when going to sleep.
and so are not easily to be seen.
The relations between our Board and
the inspectors seems close and helpful
Secretary Mathews lacks up'' anv
who are not just on the jump. Chair
man Lee has certainly gotten the details
OF our fisheries in hand IT. c. Davis.
Editor The Oysterman.
Capt o. W. Hudson, of the police
steamer James River, captured w. F.
Herbert dredging oysters near Ragged
Point on Monday last. He was brought
here for trial, and fined SIS. On failure
to pay his fine the boat in which he was
dredging was held by the authorities.
Colonial Beach Record.
The new "Crab License Law, in
Maryland is now in force. Every person
engaging in the business of taking crabs
for sale, except boys under ten wears
OF age, is required to license, paving
the sum of 81. so for license and 25 cents
Tor Clerks fees Failure to license will
subject person to fine of $25.
1t is thought by knowing culturists
that oysters will be plentiful next year.
Our own State will contribute her quoto.
as VIII Maryland. In the last named
State many vessels of the larger type
OF Baltimore are carrying plants to our
growers and the planters in Delaware
bay. The Southern oyster-producing
areas will have an immense output the
next season, and yet the marketable
stock will find good sale and fair prices
we predict.-The Oysterman.
Unless the trap men speedily do
away with the pockets and abserve
a fish Gull law it will be but a short
time before the other edible fish of the
chesapeake bay will go the way of the
once plentiful sturgeon. Some twenty
thousand young shad were taken from
single pocket recently, thew soon
dying and of no use but for fertilizer
Think what those shad would have pro-
ouced year hence to our fishermen. for
they would have come back here.
The fishing industry of the Pacific
Coast during 1907 exceeded $26. 600. OOO
IN value, according to the statistics of
the Pacific Fisherman. The pack of
canned salmon during 1907 for the whole
coast was 4,O15. 169 cases, as compared
with 3,Sl7,3l6 cases, compared with
3,sl7,3l6 in 1906. The pack in
Alaska was exceeded in only one other
year-that of 1902. Virginia pro-
duces half as much in value as the
entire Pacific Coast, and that Virginia
and Maryland together almost as much
as the whole Pacific Coast.
Early in the spring the housewife
iinds soft crabs in their baby state,
tenderly arranged in grass-lined travis
waiting for purchaser. At this stage
they cost from 81 to 50. 80 dozen, and
one Is not a mouthful for the epicure
so that they really make an expensive
oish. Later on. however. they grow
cheaper aud larger, until finally n;ca
ones, large as the palm of ones hand.
may be had for 10 to % cents a dozen.
uncooked. the crab, hard or soft, is not
pretty monster; cooked he is a practi-
cal Illustration that pretty is as
pretty does.