El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-04-02
OYSTER SEASON is
NEARING CLOSE
Americans Spend 100000 Annually for Oysters

ner had oysters as conspicuous fea-
ture OF the menu. They are no more.
Oysters az Egg Producers.
Further down the Atlantic coast
slightly better methods have obtained
and q reasonable effort has been made
by state and private interests to guard
the oyster beds Luckily the oyster
lends itself admirably TO a properly
wrought out scheme of conservation AS
an egg producer it is to the American
hen as an express train on q 70-mile-an-
hour schedule TO the slowest snail that
crawlS-
Some of the best layers can turn out
50,000.000 eggs season, and just an or
binary, everyday oyster can produce
10000, 900 eggs year. 1t has been cal
culated that if every one of these To-,
100000 eggs were TO grow into a mature
oyster through five generations they
would make a pile OF oysters as big as
eight worlds such as the one on which
we live
Under natural conditions only one egg
in 100000 is likely TO develop into a
mature oyster. Under methods of arti-
fetal propagation which have been
proved in the laboratory. il not in the
field, the ratio might be brought down
| a hUndredfold. thus permitting each
female oyster to. mother thousands Of
little ones in a single season.
Conservation.
The oyster is not the only denizen
of the deep that is prolific. Holding in
solution uncounted billions. of tons Of
inorganic matter carried down to the
sea during the millions OF years that
have passed, plant life literally bathes
itself in riches OF nutrition. While the
potato may bring forth a hundredfold.
it's nourishment must come up through
a few roots and drOuth and other re-
tarding agencies may retard its growth
But the myriads of microscopic plants
OF the sea produce a milHonfold. In
| deed, so prolific are they that If one
tiny plant were permitted 70 multiply
! unrestricted and without the loss OF
progeny through q single week, the
whole ocean would become a mass OF
unnavigable slime
To hold this marvellous growth in
check is the mission of the animal life
| of the sea- A single whale may strain
| hundreds of gallons of water at every
gulp, and even on oyster will strain
| many gallons of water q day. In this
way sort Of gigantic balance is struck,
the plant life making available for the
animal life the food stores of inorganic
life and in turn being held from the
| danger of glutted market. so to speak.
by the enormous demands OF the animal
| life
The oyster is regarded as mans
| friend par excellence for deep water Gull
tivation. Fish may swim hundreds of
miles away and give little reward for
/ their propagation But the oyster. aft
| er the first short period Of free exist
ence, spent mainly in looking around
for place on which to build its perma-
|, nent residence, settles down and spends
the rest of its natural life at that one
place, ready for the oysterman's call al
! all times.
Get Into Tide.
Oysters usually like to get where the
tide runs strong. and to them the
phrase, LAS happy a clam at high
tide is no meaningless expression, for
the tide brings them abundant supplies
of food.
The oyster. like man, is a wonderfully
and fearfuIly made creature II has all
| the organs common to animal life, and
nearly all of them are conferred in its
| gills, which are the most complex
| structures imaginable. In them are the
| pumps which maintain a proper circula
| ton of the water supply; the food col
| lectors that strain the oysters bread
and meat from the water the hands
| that carry the food TO the mouth. and
| the organs of reproduction. together
I with the nursing chamber where the
eggs are brought to that maturity which
enables them to live for a time in the
| open sea-
When the baby oyster is Matched it
| looks around for awhile. visiting one
place and then another, until it finds &
home site, and then settles down and
begins TO build. 1t collects the lime
| from the water that passes through its
| strainers, and sends it out through a
| secretion in tiny layers, each harden
| ing space. until the completed house is
| constructed. When a parasite or grain