The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-08-22
MUSSELS DUG UP
 TO SUPPLY TRADE
 IN OYSTER FAMINE
Senator Homan Interests Prof. Field of U. s. Bureau of Fish cries in Deep Water MoIIusk As An Article of Food

New Haven, Aug 22-The discourag- ing reports reaching oyster growers of the failure of 8 ''set'' on Connecticut grounds is bringing strongly to the front the fact that this will be the fifth lean year in the industry. Those
 on their, oyster beds will be hard pushed to supply their trade Some growers have been holding back in
 supplying the market for the past two years by reason of previous poor sets AS 1t takes four five years to mature an oyster the present fam inc in Connectic1t-grown bivaIves is likely to extend through a period of
 many years.
 Weather and water conditions have been unusually good, this summer, yet the "set' is very poor. This is not
 understood. There are three weeks l left in which the young oysters may l show themselves but there is no spe- ] ctaI reason for a late 'tset." In Rhode Island waters, the set | is generally declared to be "unsatis- I factory
 A shortage of oysters is expected to bring into the market another shell fish which has heretofore been ne glected, chiefly because it's habits and nature were not understood. Senator
 Franklin L. Homan, of this city, who, two years ago. discovered by deep sea dredging an inexhaustible bed or scalIops some miles south of Block i Island which bed experts of the fed 1 era1 government recently declared to extend to the Delaware Capes, has been dredging deep water musse1s in Long Island Sound.
 1 Recently, MT. Homan enlisted the
 aid of Prof. Irving A. Field, of the | United States bureau of fisheries,
 Woods Hole, Mass, in the study of the new moIlusk as an article of food. Prof. I:e1o says that while mussels are abundant everywhere along the coast, the average American is not ac- quainted with them. The shell is very thin and the color externally a shin ing blue-bIack The horny cord was long considered to be poisonous but this is considered not so. The mus sels attach themselves to almost any thing. They grow in enormous quan- tities, some flats. producing from 4oeO 10 COCO bushels per acre every three or four years
 Prof. Field says no agricultural crop can compare with the yield of mus sel bee He points out the neglect Of Sew EngIanders to this very impor- +ant food resource, adding that the clam. although highly pr1zed, is poor substitute for the mussel.
 Prof. Field says:
 with the millions of dollars worth of Enussels which are growing Tn our WI ters and the increasing scarcity and ever soaring prices of materials, the United States bureau of fisheries considered it of importance to inves- tigate whether the existing prejudice was with any real foundatfon."
 The results of this inquiry made at the labor atories at Woods Hole and completed August 14th, have just been sent to Senator Homan, whose assist ance is asked to carry forward fur ther inquiries as to the location of nussel beds off the New England coast.
 The information obtained will be off cially reported by Prof. Field to the American fisheries society in Boston, next month.
 The chief point about the neglect of mussels by those who frequent the keashore is that, while the blue-black shells are found in quantity, they are usually a. mass of empty shells Prof Field explains that mussels, the sea food, are those which live in deep water musse1 washed ashore, or which is attached to rocks which are exposed at low tide, is usually little more than an empty she'll The growth in 1t is almost minute This