Evening capital and Maryland gazette., 1915-09-16
SEVERE HOT WEATHER
HITS HARD THE OYSTER
Causes Temporary Paralysis Of the
Industry.
BUT MAY PROVE REAL HELP.
Small Yield Expected, AS August Storm
is Believed to Have Damaged the
Reds.

One notable effect of the relapse
of autumn into the heart of summer
weather in Maryland has been the tenn
porary paralysis of the oyster indus
try, according to the local dealers.
Ancient tradition says that oysters
are proper food in any month the name
| of which contains an "R." but that
time-honored rule has been smashed
| by the soaring thermometer since the
| first two days of September.
William II. Killain, president of the
| Oyster Growers and Dealers Associ-
alton of North America, Baltimore, de-
clared yesterday at his Office in that
city, that the fall oyster season had al
ready been set back approximately a
! fortnight and that it would be retarded
| just so long as the present hot spell
kept up.
To-day, just to test the temperature
down here on the water front at my
place." he said, 81 put a Thermometer
| out in the sun little while. 1t regis
tered 1T degrees-and it was a good
reliable thermometer. With such
temperature, the oyster season, of
course, has been temporarily killed.
"But on the whole, l do not believe
this will work to any great disadvant-
age. Often the first part of the sea-
son is cool, and inland dealers accu-
mulate large stocks of oysters, to be
caught about the middle of September
by warm spell, which results in the
spelling of their supplies and their
consequent DISAGREEMENT. Now, none
of the inland dealers has any stock of
oysters to speak of. So when the sea-
son does not open up it is likely to
continue without interruption.
So few oysters have reached here
| thus far that il is difficult to predict
what the quality or supply will be. At
present the shipments arriving are just
enough to meet the meagre demand of
summer--for there is some demand for
oysters in every month of the year, a
| limited number of consumers disre-
garding the "R" rule. The first ship
ments, which arrived on September /,
when the longing season was opened,
showed that the oysters were thin, al
though well-fiavored.
"As to the yield this year" said Mr..
Killian, that is likely to be somewhat
short. From down the bay come re-
ports that many oysters were killed in
the early part of August, presumably
by the violent storm which came up
from the gulf. Storms of this kind
sometimes shift the mud and sand at
the bottom of the Chesapeake and its
tributaries, covering up the oyster beds
and killing the oysters by starvation
and suffocation. For, you know, oys-
ters must be able to open their shells
to eat, and they can't do this when they
are covered with mud and sand"
There is likely to be little packing
of oysters in Baltimore this season, as
there was an unusually large supply of
canned "cove" oysters left over from
last year, and it would be easy under
the circumstances to overstock the
market. Then, too, with better trans
portation facilities and refrigerating
service now in force, even the Middle
West is getting accustomed to demand
the fresh instead of the canned stock.
In the meantime until the oyster
season opens in earnest, tongers will
have to spend their time farming, fish
| ing or gathering fruit and vegetables
for packing.