Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1908-11-27

BUSINESS OF ONE CONNECTICUT DEALER
DOES NOT EQUAL THAT OF NORFOLK
ALoNE-No CONNECTICUT oYs-
TIERS SOLD HERE.
Norfolk Ledger-Dispateh.]
1.-The statement that one man alone
in the State of Connecticut does more
business in single year than the COM
bined oyster dealers in Norfolk, Hamp-
ton, Cape Charles, Newport News, Old
Point and the whole of the James river
and lower Chesapeake Bay sections
combined, is not only extravaganza in
the extreme, but it is untrue"
This was the answer today of r. l..
Miles, of the firm of ]. H. Miles & Co.,
one of the largest oyster packing houses
in Norfolk, to a local editorial published
in yesterday s Richmond Times-Dispatch
on the oyster industry. an assignment
of reasons rs to why the present Baylor
survey should be broken with a change
of oyster laws in general.
Commenting upon the statement by
the Times-Dispatch that Connecticut
oysters are sold in Norfolk cheaper
than oysters can be raised in Hampton
Roads," Captain Miles said:
Connecticut oysters are not sold
here. The Connecticut dealers are in
business for what they can make. II
they can sell their oysters here at a
profit why don't they send them to this
market?"
Continuing, Capt. Miles said: There
is not an oyster dealer in Connecticut or
in the world who does as much as the
combined oyster business of Norfolk city
alone, to say nothing of Hampton and
the other sections referred to in the
statement. There are twenty dealers
in Norfolk and Portsmouth who average
| 100, 900 bushels each season. This will
make the total Norfolk output upwards
of 1900, 900 gallons, and there is no
single firm that does any such business
as that anywhere.
1.-The idea of adding Norfolk's bust
ness to the rest of the oyster business
in the James river and lower Chesapeake
sections and saying that this total is
less than the total business of any sin
gle oyster firm in Connecticut, is most
extravagant, and cannot be true. There
are some very large dealers in Connect
icut, but none who do any such business
as the combined business in Underwater
Virginia. Such statement is surpris-
ing indeed to those who are in the
oyster business and profess to know
something of it.
''The only Connecticut oysters ever
handled here are sometimes when a
special order for gallon or two is had.
The Connecticut dealers send their oys-
tiers West. They have this year done
an exceptionally good business in the
East, and maybe this is why some of
the extravagant statements have gone
OUT
EASTERN SHORE HAS PLENTY OF OYSTERS
Northampton Tmes.l
To several of our contemporaries,
both of Richmond and Norfolk, if to
be judged by the tenor of their edito-
rial deliverances, the head-lands of the
James, and Elizabeth rivers constitute
the limit of civilization.
Each is persuaded beyond a perad-
venture that because its respective
markets do not abound in cheap fish
and oysters, the scarcity of both must
Of course needs be general and uniform;
hence a famine is declared and the
Commission of Fisheries accordingly
mathematical.
A remarkable Characteristic of nearly
all the personal Investigations" and
unbiased discussions" of the unprece-
dented scarcity. so called, of fish and
oysters in those cities is, first, that
they are for the most part conducted
by kid-glove tongers or silk stocking
anglers, and finally that they usually
conclude with tweak at the ear Of
Commissioner Lee. A conclusion is
therefore becoming somewhat wide
spread that some at least of the logic
with which the public has lately been
favored must be predicated either upon
imperfect information, misinformation,
or no information at all.
1t is not our province or pleasure to |
defend the Commission of Fisheries
right or wrong; nor can it be maintained
that the fish and oyster industry of the
State is not subject for legitimate
discussion. AS matter of fact it is of
very grave concern to all the people,
especially of Tidewater, and there is no
argument against any amount of honest,
intelligent research. touching its various