Lower coast gazette., 1910-07-30

III uuailIalir goIlcet and st"aR" iNlo lhe Mis-
sissippi river, or have developed that business
UNFORTUNATELY with their vast increase OF popt;-
lation, the catfish in the Father Of Waters have
lourished and multiplied and grown tatter and
more nutriciOus until they are capable OF hep
ing to support an enormous human population II
they are properly utilized as a food resource for
the peopIe of our river states. Yet, compare
lively, that unlimited food supply is scarcely
touched. The few Malay and Chinese fisher
men furnish catfish to our city tish-markets, the
vagabond riverbank negro lures him from his
lair, and small companies of white men 0perat-
ing on the Atchafalaya, capture a driblet of the
local catfish supply and ship it by rail to be con-
sumed fresh in the interior towns and cities un-
der various and most profitable aliases, or direct
to the salmon canning factories where its flesh
and hair are properly dyed and it comes back to
US in the unblushing pink countenance Of Pa
ciic salmon.
That prediction of the catfish for the
decaying garbage and the over-ripe f1otsam
of the Mississippi river is nothing in its dis
favor. The vegetation that feeds US itself feeds
upon the rejected of animal vitality, which
comes to US revived and purified by the Won
drous chemical changes of nature. 1t is the
same with the catfish. 1t not as what he eats,
but what it is converted into in his vitality that
comes to US. He is very edible fried and ap-
bearing on table under his native cognomen,
and also somewhat satisfactory, if somewhat
delusive, as furnishing the chief component
parts of Courtbouillon or masquerading IN the
cruise of Tenderloin Trout, with sauce tartare.
There are very many ways in which the cat
fish may be cooked on his own or assumed mer-
it's, and under the conditions of the enormous
cost of other foods he is grossly neglected by a
people who might save millions in recognizing
him as a most available and abundent food re-
source in times of plenty or in a period of fam
inc. In his proper and profitable development
NJ capital is needed except that involved in a
few cheap hooks and lines, and the little time
wasted waiting for him to bite is as likely as
not to be wasted in a less advantageous manner.
Then, again, at least in lower Louisiana, we
have the bullfrog in great force. He is fine and
nutritious eating, and in some of the more pop
ulout Northern States he is cultivated in farms
with a profitable annual crop. Here we sadly
neglect him, as if his only mission in life were
singing the bass in the batrachian chorus of our
swamps and marshes. If We cultivated him and
ate him here in his native heath we might find
and save millions in him.
Highly important in the scale Of crustacean
foods comes the crawfsh. He bores our levees
and eats our rice crop, and urgently invites US
to follow the reciprocal practice of feeding on
him. He is during all the warm months in vast
abundance and very edible. He figures to adj
vantage in gumbo, bisque, jambaIaya and frica-
see. A comparatively few of US recognize his
intrinsic worth as a food resource, but a few
hundred thousand of us utterly neglect him and
are unaware that he is fully capable of taking
the place of a part of the truSt-contrOlled pro-
ducts which cost so much in housekeeping now
adays.
To summarize: We all complain of and
suffer through the present cost of living. Yet
here we are surrounded by an unstinted and
boundless natural supply of fresh and salt
shrimp, catfish, b~ullfrogs and crawfish furnished
free to all who are able to take them and par
take of them. In almost every form in which
these food resources may be cooked our native
rice figures to advantage, and our native okra
and tomatoes improve.
Our good old state is more capable of feed
ing itself than it has so far demonstrated that
it is, and it should not neglect the development
of such food resources as have been described
herein as it has been doing ever since it became
a proud member Of the great sisterhood of
American commonwealth. Let US diversity
our cultures somewhat, and to our trinity of
sugar cane, rice and cotton, add these riches of
our rivers.
or, Cont Rprtop make the roads almost imDaSSibe. Will