Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-01-03

ing the boat slowly along in shallow
water, and making a swoop with n
dipnet when they see crab on the
/ bottom. Ninety per cent. of the
crabs thus caught are hard silelied.
and they are put into floats and kept
until they shed their shells.
The first stage of crab in pro-
! crossing from hard to soft is What
is termed locally = 'snot.' The change
| from Il snot to a softer requires from
| four hours to four days, depending on
| the condition of the crab. The snot
| becomes a peeler. when he is much
priced for bait, and new shell has
completely formed under the hard
coat, and then buster when the
hard shell has started to come loose
/ at the back. Then in a short time
energies the softer, ready for the mar
ket and the table,
THE average life of crab is threes
years The secretary of the Virginia
state board of fisheries who has
studied crabs many years, says that
a single female in the spring of the
year will produce 1.250,000 eggs. Out
Of all those only about 200 crabs ma
ture. The remainder are consumed
by other fish and by crabs. After
laying her eggs the female CRAB is
eaten by others of her SPECIES .ssst
The eggs mature and hatch almost
as soon as they ere laid the young
being scarcely larger than a pinhead
and they are more or less soft until
, they get to be about the size of
! thumbnail. Then they start shedding.
| and that is the way they grow.
| When so small they shed on an aver
age once a week. expanding each
| time about one-third of their size.
| When they are about month old
| they have reached a length of about
| three inches, and from that time
| they shed only once a month. After
| shedding seven more times the crab
| becomes a confirmed hardshell.
"rhe season opens in our waters on
May 1 and lasts until October l, when
| the crabs go out into very deep water.
In the early spring, to be exact, on
| March 1, the soft crab season opens at
| Morehead City, N c., where many
| Crisheld packers go and operate until
| the season begins at home.
| IF when crab is unpacked in New
( York it is what is called a 'papershell,'
( which means that the shell has begun
| to harden, that means that if the crab
/ L
when it started, Packed in sea ores
| (seaweed) they viii keep. soft until
| they died. / shipped crabs last sum-
| mer to friend in Houston, Tex, Il ~
| hour journey. We do not ship in re-
| frigerated ears, but in refrigerating
| boxes, with openings at the ends for
| ice to be put in OH the journey by the
express company by which they are
| shipped.
Some persons do not know how to
| tell when crab is fit to eat. Here is
| an infallible method of telling. The
| fact that a crab is dead when it is
| unpacked does not mean that it is
| necessarily spoiled. The way to tell
| is to pull out one of the back fins. If
| it resists, the crab is in good condition.
| If the crab should be thrown away the
| fin will come out easily and will be
| mushy on the end. Brown spots ON
] the top of shells of crabs do not mean
| that anything is wrong, because you
| will frequently find them on 1--we
/ crabs. 1T makes no difference how
| long a crab has been dead If the back
fin pulls out hard.
| about 10 per cent. of the population
of Crisfield is engaged in the oyster
| and fish trade But we cannot count
upon anything like regular produc-
ton. Crabs may be selling one day
| at 81 a dozen and in three days time
| may drop to 80 cents because of over
production Then a storm may cut off
the supply and the price go soaring
| again.
Hard crabs are picked into three
| grades of meat: Claw meat, for use on
| free lunch counters; white, for devil
| crabs and crab cakes, and lump, for
newburgs and fancy dishes. l have
heard that Japanese crab meat,
| canned, comes into this country free
of duty but have not been able to YER
| ify it. Some persons do not fancy the
| big she crab for eating purposes. but
| it is the finest and will keep longer
| than the male crab There is great d.
versity in the methods of cleaning soft
crabs before cooking. Down our way
| in addition to removing the aprons
we cut away the mouths and carefully
remove what are called the dead men
under each of the shells .s
Diamond black terrapin are scarce.
! When you think that in slavery times
the Maryland Legislature passed an
act prohibiting planters from feeding
| them to their slaves more than three
times a week, it seems queer to find
them bringing SIS a dozen now."--N.
Y. Sun.