Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1915-08-05
THE STORY OF HOW
PEARLS ARE GROWN

Upon its surface" a v Van Dyke.
.trembles a mellow lustre. a soft and
lridesceht light. full of shifting CLEANS
OF azure and of rose"
/ A wonderfully vivid description and
q true one. is this. of the queen of
gemS-the pearl.
70 ages it has been the favorite of
ROYALTY and wealth and the object of
universal admiration and desire.
Numerous have been the attempts to
reproduce it and va.ying the methods,
but meager the results.
IL is true that very fine limitations Of
me pearl have been made, but these
could never appeal to the discriminating
! lhlnd or the eNacting taste, to whom
hothlng snort of the real pearl, not only
IN onward appearance, but in it's very
makeup. would be acceptable.
SO man set out to harness the very
oyster, as 1t We're, and make it yield the
pearl With greater certainty. so that the
privilege of possessing it might be eX-
tended to every pearl lover.
! Decades upon decades were spent.
dlsappolntments suffered and lives
sacrificed in the study and application
of the laws governing the birth and
development of the pearl. and it was
not before 1896 hat the cultivation of
pearl oyster on a commercial scale had
become a fac.
Now pearl culture is a thriving in
dustry. Its home is located about a
dozen miles south of the famous shrine
of lse, in the sheltered Bay of Ago, long
known for producing some of the finest
pearls in the world. 1t is a remarkably
quiet body of water, some six miles
long and three miles wide, with an av-
erage of 10 fathoms.
Ihe coast line is cut with many in
dentations, affording excellent shelter
and ground for the pearl oysters. The
gulf stream sweeps near by and is an
important factor in making this a
favorite haunt of the precious mullusk.
h mollusk belongs to a species
closely resembling that found near
Cey!on. 1t lives. anchored to rocks.
stems of alsae, etc. at a depth not ex-
ceedinfg seven fathoms.
Every year in July and August
pieces of rock are placed in spots where
larvae of the pearl oysters have been
found to be most abundant. Soon small
oyster spats are found attached to
them. With the advent of the winter,
these, together with the rocks, are re-
moved to deeper waters and carefully
laid out in beds prepared for them.
Here they lie until they reach their
third wear, when. with the aid of the
cnltivator, whose chief problem con-
sists in inserting the nuclei, the process
of pearl culture begins.
Another four years, and we find that
the mollusk has invested the nucleus
with numerous layers of nacre, and has,
in fact. produced pearl.
Pearl culture. as described, may seem
very simple. but in reality it is far from
being an easy task. There are many
drawbacks besetting this industry,
such as the election of the nuclei. etc,
and especially. the great mortality
among the oysters.
The octopus plays sad havoc among
them. The starfish, too, is an unwel-
come intruder. The most dreaded of all
evils, however. is the invasion of the
Red Current" which may in one day
ind the work of years.
For the first five or six years. the
production of the oriental cultured
pearl was not very great and not much
was done to encourage it's use either
here or abroad. Later, as the industry
developed. a steadier and larger pearl
CROP was assured.
The cultured pearls are real, natural
and comparatively inexpensive. They
are beautiful and fascinating: they
have the color and lustre of the finest
ndian pearl and are as nearly perfect
otherwise as pearls can be.
The difference between the oriental
cultured pearl and the other is. tina
the production of the former is brought
about by the pearl c%ultivator. while
that of the latter is accidental
The costly pearl is found in the soft
body of the oyster. while the cultured
pearl is built by the oyster on the in
side of the shell. This accounts for the
mother of pearl portion in the cultured
pearl at the point of adhesion to the
shell. This feature is improved by the
use of a setting especially adapted for
the mounting of this pearl.