Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1908-02-28

ne is not solid. You can stick fork in
him raw and he collapses, the water
runs out. So, it is but reasonable to
believe that such stock, when blOated
with sewer water, is dangerous to a
mans stomach-even the man that has
fortified himself with snake bite
The Virginia oyster does not have
to be pulled up, though he does himself
proud wherever he goes, like the Abe
marie pippin, and all that is needed is
to give him little advance advertising.
The trouble is that our Chesapeake bay
oyster is sent across the pond under
the beguiling name of Blue Point or
Narragansett. He loses his individuality.
and while flying under high-sounding
title is really in bad company. In the
west he is known as Long Island Sound
or Connecticut stock, and again gets a
whack in the neck. We have a little of
that dodge practiced right here at home.
There are ten barrels of oysters sold as
Lynn Haven bay oysters to every one
that actually comes out of Lynn Haven
yes, probably sixteen to one. There
is no better raised than Lynn Haven
oysters, but there are plenty of others
just as good about the Chesapeake bay,
CherrystOne, York river, Gwynn's
Island, Rappahannock river and other
Chesapeake bay sections 1 might name
produce oysters the equal to Lynn
Haven and second to none in America.
All they want is proper advertising, and
that is what the Virginia oyster needs
abroad and out West. There would be
no such price as fifty to sixty cents
bushel today throughout the oyster
region if Virginia had relied upon her
own name and not permitted her stock
to sail heretofore under false colors.'
(From Baltimore sunJ
Disclosures made by DR.. Charles E.
North, the bacteriologist. concerning
the danger of disease in all oysters
taken from the polluted waters in the
vicinity of New York city gives the BIZ
valves of Chesapeake Bay new honor.
They are comparatively free of the
germs which soon will make it neces-
sary for oystermen around the metro
polls to be legislated out of business.
The increased demand for oysters
from this State, which have long-es-
tablished repute for their cleanliness,
will mean that the value of this great
undeveloped resource of the State will
be increased in value. The demand for
Maryland oysters is already beyond the
possibility of the supply according to
the present system of depicting the
beds from which the oysters Of the
future might be raised.
The story brought out by DR.. North's
report is one that is likely to make
every lover of oysters who has deli
cate stomach squeamish about eating
oysters and New Workers will probably
have to send to Maryland for their
future supply. Many of our oysters go
there now.
Some time ago Mayor Mcclellan had
commission examine the oysters in
the vicinity of the city, but for some
reason has not made this report public,
and it is said that he has withheld il
for fear that the oyster industry of
that section would be killed by the
blow delivered by the disclosures
of impurity in oysters contained
in the report.
DR.. North's investigation was made
independently with the assistance of
representatives of the Lederle labora-
tories. In his report he says he found
germs In every oyster bed tested about
New York, and investigation proved
the contamination was due to sew
erage. He said 1T is evident that the
discharges from numerous cases of ty-
phoid fever, which exist in large city
like New York, are constantly finding
their way into the sewage, and there
fore must inevitably be carried into
whatever districts the sewage flows.
The demonstration of colon bacillus in
the samples collected proves positively
their contamination by sewage. This
we have succeeded in doing in some of
the samples collected from every local
ity."
Elsewhere in the report DR. North
says that in one cubic centimeter of
mud taken from the oyster bed in the
big enough mud to fill third
of teaspoon-he found So, 900 bacteria.