The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-07-03

sells are great fellows as big as a plate
 and excellent producers of mother of pearl, the material from which pearl buttons are made, and this is the test of the ability to produce good ornamental pearls. Great quantities of the biggest and best shells in the world are produced
 throughout the Philippine islands. Inc
 Gulf of California yields more natural pearls and of better quality than any
 section of the world with the exception, of Ceylon. So is the possibility of the
 pearl farming at the very door of every American. With this possibility and with
 the proved possibility in Japan, 1t seems almost certainty that numbers of per sons will shortly enter the business and
 that pearls will be artifcially produced in any quantities that the market de- mands.
 The Demand Limits It "There is but one. limit" says Doctor Bartsch Ito the ability of the people
 to produce pearls sartfcially. That l limit is the number of men obtainable who have the skill to carry on the work, l The operation is deHcate one. It must l be accomplished with great precision. Men trained in laboratory work are best 1 fitted for it. They must be clever and dextrous. Of course it would be possible
 to train numbers of men who were not
 
 that will come about. It is the dexterity
 of the Japanese that is today making
 such phenomenal success"
 l Because of the great abundance of pearl producing fresh water mollusks in the
 streams of the Mississippi valley this country has, in tbe last score of years,
 developed a button industry which abso- lutely controls the markets of the world. | So great has become the industry that | the beds are being depleted. To prevent this the government is establishing breed | ing stations to replenish them. At these stations 1t is expected that the possibili-
 ties of artiflcially inducing the develop
 ment of pearls will be exemplified. But
 the big money is for the pearl farmer who does 1t first.
 Just at this time, on the eve of the
 development of the new industry, an American has come forward with an in- vention which greatly simplifies the whole process. This Is sort of an X-ray ma chine which will take picture of tray
 of live mussels and show just what pearls they contain, where they are, and
 whether or not they are mature and in general all the information that
 might be obtained by opening the shells. This saves all those that have no pearls that they may go on breeding yet others that may. 1t also saves those that are
 producing pearls which have not yet come to maturity. With it there is no need of opening any shell that does not ! contain a marketable pearl It is de-
 vice that should multiply many times the possible productiveness of any given bed and do away with the haphazard of present methods. MT. Solomon has es-
 tablished a plant from which he pro- poses to extend the services of his in
 vention to operators in the neighbor | hood of Colon. where it is.
 The richest pearl fisheries in the Amer icas at the present time are those Of
 the Gulf of California, centering around
 La Paz and along the outer coast of Lower California. Cortez first despoiled
 the Indians of this section of the pearls it produced and startled the court of Spain with their richness. Later another Spaniard for a lifetime secured from 300 to 5O0 pounds of pearls here every year, packed them over the mountain on mules and sold them by the bushel.
 Some Great American Pearls
 According to Dr. George F. Kunz, one of the worlds greatest authorities on pearls those of the finest water should possess perfect skin, fine orient and delicate texture. It should be free from specks and flaws, and of a translucent white color with a subdued, irridescent sheen. It should be perfectly spherical or symmetrtcally pear shaped. Wnlte or pink pearls are the finest, owing to
 their delicate sheen. Sometimes the outer layer can be removed, the next | layer being of finer texture, and the
 pearl in this way improved
 The lower California pearls are of a great variety of shapes and colors.
 They are round, pear shaped, fiat on one side, baroque or irregular in shape. In color they may be white, pink, blue. green, brown and black. Some of tho most famous pearls in history were taken from these waters One of the most
 beautiful gems in the Spanish crown Is an enormous Mexican pearl weighing 400 grains, With hardly an exception there are American pearls among the crown
 jewels of every ruler in Europe. At the Worlds fair in Paris there were exhibited set of seven black pearls from these Mexican fisheries which are today worth $5o, 900. The Emperor of Austria paid s10,OO0 for a black pearl from Mexico, and Napoleon III was given one valued at s25, 900. Pearls worth $5000 each are con- stantly being found. One of peculiar brown has been found and sold for $S00O Sonora Diaz, wife of the president of Mexico, has a large collection of native pearls
 Among the poorest natives it is no uncommon thing to find the rarest gems being worn in some crude mounting. There are many tales floating about of such stones that have been purchased for small sums and sold for amounts