The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-10-01

ket demands.
 Oysters are not offered to the mar ket for planting purposes until they are three or four and even five years of age. All oysters raised in this To- cality are for planting purposes only In the spring ships come here from Princess Bay, Rockaway, BarnegaG Tuckertown, Blue Point, South Bay, Narragansett Bay, and Atlantic City and hundreds of other places, load with these seed oysters and take them to their respective ports where they are repIanted and sold the next season under the name of oysters of that par ticular place.
 There is nostset'' on the Pacific coast consequently dealers from that section of the country come to New York every season and buy up thous- ands of bushels of the smallest seed oysters that they can find. These are shipped west and planted along the Washington. Oregon and Californian coasts With the modern sanitary ways of shipping opened oysters, these are now sent practically all over the United States from the east
 Hard Bottom Best
 Oysters thrive best on a hard, even bottom where they can lie undlsturp- ed wear after year. feeding on the dia- toms gathered from the gallons of wa ter which pass through their -gfAs. It often happens however. that the most risky grounds are the best setting grounds. In this case, the gFower is compelled to have safer grounds ready to which the ''set'' is shifted just as soon as it is large enough to be nov ed. They must often take the chances Of moving the s.seti' early, knowing that if it is left on the risky grounds they are likely to lose the entire bed f1zg- -TsW on their business in constant fear of storms for not only are the set and the very young oysters n1enaced by them but often entire beds of four year old oysters are lost during a bad storm. Such a loss can only be esti- mated when it is considered that oys-z ters are planted 500 bushels to the acre and that the average bed com tains from 925.o0o to l30,o0o bushels of these dainties of the deep
 But storms are not the only dar- gers which beset the life of an oyster He has livingt enemies as we'll, which continualIy harass him. the two most drills.
 Enemies of Oyster.
 Star fish wrap their four, five or six fingers, as it may be,.abont the oys- ter. Ia ping his bill and there work ing on the flat shell until they can break off a good sized piece and such away his life. At times in the year star fish form themselves into punches all closely knit together and roll about on the bottom like a large stone. When such a. mass of star fish strike a bed of oysters they irnrnedi- ately separate,g get busy and in many cases have been known to eat thou sands of bushels in two or three days. It is possible by keeping strict watch xyav-f fI7A hodS fn f7 q off rf2 fc17 and to gather them in to the boats with mops-
 Drills are small and conical in shape and their method of attacking the oyster is to bore a tiny but effect i've hole through his shell. The only way that<he grower can get rid of drillt when one of his beds is 1nen- aced by them is to clean it up en- tirely, even to the fine shells and small stones which are there. and throw them upon the shore or dock where the drills will die.
 Natural Oyster Beds.
 Besides the beds owned by the eys- ter companies of this section, there are a number of natural beds where many oystermen work The season on the natural beds opened on Monday, September 20, and according to new state law passed by the last Gen. eraI Assembly, every man who works the natural DeQS must take out license and pay a fee of $5. In pre- vious years, the oysterman's boat has been licensed according to its ton mage and this has been retained along with the fee The oystermen are sat isded with the added fee, however, as they feel that it will keep transients off the grounds. There are many of these. oystermen of this section wbo have given their lives to this business. They own their boat and come daily during the season to the natural beds where they load with the best oysters and then take them to market
 Besets as they are with many dan gers during their entire existence, oysters will always continue to be a favorite article of food throughout the country and the waters about this section of Connecticut must still be one of the two greatest cradles of the whole United States for infant oys- ters.