The San Francisco call., 1910-05-22

IT has come to pass that pearls of
great price may be planted and
l. grown as simply as may potatoes
in a garden There is a man in the
far Pacific who has this year an area
Of 5000 acres Of them growing in pro-
fusion. There is half of the tropical
oceans open 10 such farming. Pearls
may be similarly grown in the fresh
waters OF all the Mississippi basin, or
on the Potomac, or where the Colorado
flows into the Pacific There seems no
reason why the next few years should
not witness their production by the
ton or by the shipload for that matter
a resident Of Japan. a Mr.. Makimoto.
is the original pearl farmer and the
planter OF the present great area. His
operations are based upon an applica-
tion Of learning acquired at Johns
Hopkins university in this country and
which is open TO every student Now
comes an American. John J. Solomon
OF New York. who has patented a pro-
cess which perfects farming methods
and eliminates waste and chance. Mr.
Solomon has a little machine which in
dicates when the pearl is ripe for pick
ing. he can select the marketable
ones as readily as an experienced
farmer can go into his garden and
pick ripe watermelons.
Then on top Of this exemplihcation
OF possibilities comes DR.. Paul Bartsch
OF the National museum at Washington,
a specialist on pearls. with the state
ment that he viii stake his profess
sional reputation upon his ability to
produce the pearls in abundance any
where in the tropical oceans. In the
Potomac river at Washington. through
out the Mississippi valley or anywhere
else that bivalves that produce the or
dinary mother of pearl from which
buttons are made will flourish.
These declarations come at a time
when the prices in pearls are soaring
heavenward and the demand for the
pearls is strong. Dealers have recent
" declared that the fishing grounds
for first class pearls have been depleted
and there viii be no further choice
ones put on the market except an occa-
sional asst gnment from some eastern
potentate who finds himself in financial
need and sells his jewels. They come
at a time when science has battled for
half a century in an effort TO produce
artificial diamonds and has never sue
ceeded in doing so economically. 1t
comes at a time when prosperity is
crying aloud for additional jewels with
which TO adorn itself.
Granting that the gems can be pro-
duced in quantities and at little cost,
a delicate situation is precipitated, for,
81 great quantities of them are put on
the market. prices viii go tumbling
and the market viii be ruined. A gem
is priced more for its rarity than its
beauty and who would wear diamonds
II they were as plentiful as pebbles?
II IS realized that the moment the pro-
ducers Of the artiicially Induced pearls
lose control Of the market. prices will
60 tumbling and the pearl viii be as
much scorned as it is now priced.
Makimoto. the japanese. was some
years ago a student at Johns Hopkins
and studied zoology as did the other
men in his class. He learned that the
pearl was produced in certain kinds OF
mussels in an accidental way. 1t was
due 10 the presence of a foreign sub
stance inside the shell Of the bivalve-
This foreign substance caused irrita-
tion and to relieve itself of the annoy
ance Of il the mussel threw around it
z coating which smoothed it over and
made its presence less annoying.
grain OF sand might cause the produc-
ton Of a pearl. More commonly. how
ever. they were caused by a parasite
which entered the mussel and formed
the nucleus for the pearl growth. The
grain Of sand was most likely to find
place next 10 the shell and the pearl
forming around-it is but half sphere
The parasite enters the body of the
mussel and the pearl is deposited on
all sides OF il, making the perfectly
spherical pearl Therefore those formed
about the parasites are greatly superior
TO the others.
Makimoto returned to Japan with
these fundamental facts. His home was
at Shima, on the bay of Ago. a region
that for centuries has been far famed
for its pearls. Here so many genera
tions Of the people have spent their
lives in diving for pearls that they are
as much at home in the water as a seal.
The diving is done largely by the
women. and the fame Of the beauty
and shapeIiness of these near mermaids
has spread the world around.
Under the old system, pearl fishing
was mere matter of chance. The
divers brought up great numbers of
the mussels. opened them and searched
them for the occasional pearl Perhaps
one in a hundred or one in a thousand
yielded returns. Perhaps the greater
proportion of the pearls found were
still small and undeveloped. Their value
was slight. but with a year or two
more of growth they would have been
worth while Makimoto's idea was TO
, prevent the destruction of great num-