Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1908-02-28
OYSTERS.
Chesapeake Bay Stock not like its
Polluted New York Kin.
ANY AFFINITY STRONGLY RE-
SENTED.
tFrom Richmond News LooderA

tFrom Richmond News Leader)
w. Mcdonald Lee, chairman Of the
State Board of Fisheries, was found in
his room at Murphy's Saturday night,
reading one Of the New York 'yellows, Z"
which contained an account of the dis
eases which are to be found in the oys-
ters of the Atlantic coast. The paper
went on to say that one of the Wander
bilts had been made violently i'll with
typhoid fever by eating oysters while
at one Of the big Northern colleges, and
the story went on to say that almost all
the ills to which the human flesh is heir
was to be found in the oyster.
Mr.. Lee was laughing at the report.
He said that it was the habit of the
"yellows" to make an attack which
could not be resented by the attacked,
but that so far as the statement apply
ing to Virginia was concerned it was
libel pure and simple. Mr.. Lee thinks
what the paper says about New York
and Northern oysters. being polluted by
the half billion gallons of sewage that
comes down from New York every day
may be true, but that does not touch
the Virginia product, and he offers to
prove it by any dsinterested persons.
Mr.. Lee said:
1.-The New York yellow journals have
'feazed' the oyster market. Week after
week, with scare headings and hideous
picters,' they tell of shocking revela-
tions in laboratories of extracting dis
ease germs from the 'succulent' bivalve,
and he can't answer back If their
| exploitation were confined to the New
York or Cape Cod or Delaware bay
oyster that animal, or fish, or whatever
he may be called, were probably wise
in keeping still tongue, but it goes
forth to Europe that the whole Ameri-
can oyster family, and to the effete and
epicurean West, that the Atlantic she'll
liver is innoculated with disease germs
feeding upon the sewage from popu-
lous coast and chain of cities.
Naturally there is slump when
such scare heads are flared in ones face.
1t is true about New York oysters to
large extent, and to greater or less
extent with the drink oysters of the
Northern States; but it is in no sense
true of the Chesapeake bay stock
though we fall under the ban through
aforesaid advertising.
"Our mollusk grows to good old age
unless mans ruthless hand snatches hin
from his bed-ridden estate. I have ir
my collection shells indicating twenty tc
thirty years of growth, and goodnes.
, knows how many additional years, fol
when an oyster gets old the addition t.
his bill (and consequent rings) are 81
indistinguishable that he may race oul
wild goose on to the century mark with
out positive contradiction.
ga drink oyster is one that is poo
(from bottom on which they do no
fatter) and is transported in floats O
otherwise up stream to fresh or brakisl
water to bloat up. When put in waite
of less saline density than is his habita
the oyster will drink in greater quaint
4 ity of water either because palatable O
from desire to procure more of a Ger
J tain nourishment that he misses, and il
this way becomes puffed up, bloated
He will open more meats, that is, wi
u measure more when shucked, for market
but he soon loses his embonpoint, an
when put on the fire goes largely ava
to water. You know what an acorn
fattened hog does for the lard can-welI