The Thibodaux sentinel. (Thibodaux, La.) 1905-1912, 1909-01-16
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OYSTERS.
How They Are Nursed and Reared and
Prepared For Market.

UfSlEHS.
How They Are Nursed and Reared ans
Prepared For Market.
Oystermen nowadays are farmers
Of the deep. They own their arti.
fetal beds and seed them down and
cultivate them carefully and watch
their crops and scarecrow off the
predatory hordes, both men and
fish, that otherwise would prey
upon them, just as the careful hus-
bandman labors in his fields. Such
an oyster bed as this may comprise
a sea covered patch of anywhere
from so to 800 acres of <bottom,' ?
fioored preferably with good, clean
sand or broken rock or shell, yet
frequently devoid at the start Of ali
natural growth of the oysters.
On the natural beds the oysters
spawn tremendously in the first
warm months of summer. The
spawn attaches itself like millions
OF freckles to anything affording a
foothold = anything sharp, like
broken shells, old bottles, other
oysters and rocks. With incredible
rapidity these freckles expand, be-
coming "spats" small finger nail
oysters, already housed Ia walls Of
lime.
Novcomes the FISHERMAN, he Of
the schooner with It's two big iron
dredges, and he in the skif with his
.tongs. Both begin to pillage the
beds in long, hard days of applica-
ton. They fetch up tons Of baby
oysters, pitch back tons and tons Of
rock or broken shell for the foot
hold Of oysters yet to be and sail
ing away to their staked out farms,
scatter all this "seed" beneath the
waves.
Not only are the private oyster
beds carefully divided one from an
other by the best Of good stake
hedges, but each holding is subdi-
vided again into many smaller fields
to facilitate the work. This be-
comes necessary from the fact that
the seed must be permitted to grow
for fully three seasons before mar
ketable oysters can be harvested.
Therefore when, with the advent of
September, the season for b;valves
has begun the schooners are man
ned with oystermen proper, who go
down to dredge out three-year-old
crop for the towns.
They are dredged from the beds
just as rapidly as men and machines
can fetch them forth. The dredge
comes up from the deep like a min
ing cage of steel. It's cargo upon
its arrival is dumped upon the deck,
and over it goes for another. Mean
while a crew Of furiously working
men are busily culling at the heap.
Scores of the oysters come up in
lumpy colonies, where six, eight,
ten or more of the creatures are
cemented together in group. The
men, armed with hammers and
skillful at the work, give one sharp
tap at such an aggregation and
break all its units apart. A false
blow might serve to kill many oys-
tiers.
Having loaded her decks, the
schooner goes home, only to dis
charge with all possible speed and
hasten again to her labors. At the
docks in the meantime equally ar
duous employment is abundant. The
oysters are forked like so much
coke upon especially constructed
floats, which, provided with tanks
to submerge them, are lowered at
once below the ebb tide level, where
they "drink" and fatten for at least
three changes of the tide, being
watched like nursing babies. The
moment they are just exactly right
another hurried business is on
hand.
The tanks are pumped out, up
come the floats, and men descend
upon them like rubber booted de-
mons to shovel them swiftly to a
scow. And now, being absolutely |
at their finest, they must all be
rushed to market.-Philip Verril
in Harper's.