Carroll County democrat. (Huntingdon, Tenn.) 188?-1971, 1913-06-27
Millions Made by Those Engaged
in the Trade.
Industry Shows Large Increase In the
Last Fifteen or Twenty Years
Large Population Is Support
ed Directly by II.


New York.-From the days fifteeI
ror twenty years ago, when few ole
oyster fishermen nurtured beds In the
waters of the sound outside Hell
Gate, the business has grown tire
mendously in the United States.
The old fishermen lived lives o.
ease and enjoyed themselves every
minute aboard the clumsy but com
Portable little sloopS
All that is changed. The oyster
business is a big business now. II
produces annually In the state Of
Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York
New Jersey, Virginia and California
$10,000,000 worth of oysters for food
Other states are developing the in
,dustry. A large population is sup
ported directly by It and still more
by contributory industries.
Oyster farmers and cultivators have
purchased from the different states
permission to cultivate the hitherto
barren ground covered by the waters
rof bays and sounds to a depth of TWEEN
ty-flve, fifty, or even 100 feet, and
have by expensive and hazardous ex-
periments caused this unproductive
ground to yield annually 100000
bushels Of oysters
While the United States and other
various states have at public expense
tpropagated millions of swimming
FISH, to be caught by those who are
engaged In the fisheries, the oyster
i grower and planter has at his own
/. cost propagated his own crops and
worked out his own results by costly
experiments and large investment.
Instead of having his crops produced
land protected for him, as has been
done for the fishers Of swimming fish,
he has paid large sums to the states
for the use Of the ground on which
he might create and prosecute this
industry. In Connecticut, for exam
Pile, the oyster growers have paid for
the franchises permitting them to
cultivate oysters, and they pay taxes
ON these franchises. They own steam
ers, shops wharves and other appur-
tenances of great industry. In
Rhode Island the oyster growers pay
rental for oyster grounds.
The oyster industry has been de-
veloped against obstacles. Great
storms have swept away beds. The
natural enemies of the oyster, espe-
~cially the starfish and the drill. have
destroyed millions Of dollars worth
of the product. and the oyster farm
-ers have expended as much more in
catching and destroying these enc
mics.
Just now, or. rather, every spring
or early summer, the oyster men are
much incensed at reports of alleged
cases of typhoid or other illness from
eating oysters They insist there Is
nothing to 1t and that oysters are the
-one delicacy that Is peculiarly free
from infection. One of the big plant
-ers. who was stopping at the Hotel
ESnickerbocker last week. said of this:
at has been said truly that there
were few places where oysters were
planted or foated that might be con-
sidered insanitary. While one bushel
in 100000 might be so situated. tho
other sSs99 are grown in the deep,
pure water Of the great bays and
sounds In those cases where there
was suspected danger Of insanItary
effects, or even criticism, the great
oyster-shipping firms voluntarily dis
continued floating and snoring oys-
tiers. and the other shippers have
been required by law to discontinue
doing So 1t is now forbidden to mar
lset any oysters from places that arc
lot approved by the health author
titles. But Notwithstanding these
facts. certain writers have continued
to work this profitable vein of sensa-
tionalism
1T is contrary ca public policy thai
\ food such 80 oysters. which are