The daily Alaskan., 1916-12-29
THE OYSTER CROP
One of the Most Valuable of Those Gathered From the Sea.
ONLY THE HERRING BEATS IT

Of thS. More Than Forty Million 5ush'
 ella of Theas NutritlOus sINalVOs Gath
 cred Yearly 5ThIs County suPpli0O
 Over 90 Per Cent
 Of all the products of the water, oysters are, with the single exception of the sea herrings. the most valuable and most important to the human race. They owe that economic pre- eminence to the fact that they, have high food value and that they are palatable, cheap, widely distributed and easy to cultivate.
 Oysters occur in greater or less abundance on the shores of all temper ate and tropical seas, but the supply In the arms of the North Atlantic ocean exceeds that in all other waters com blned. There are at least a hundred different kinds or species of oysters, with a wide range in habits, flavor, shape and size. All the oysters on the eastern and southern coasts of the United States belong to one species which has, however, many local yarie- ties; the native oyster of the Pacific states of a wholly different species.
 In about thlrty-fve countries oyster farming Is a special industry. The an- nual oyster crop of the world now amounts to more than 10000, 900 bush- els, for which the fishermen and plant CTS receive about $25,00O.000. The United States furnishes nearly 90 per cent of the crop.
 Few animals are more prolific than oysters, but of the millions of micro scopic young that a single full grown oyster produces only very small per centage survive infancy. The heavy natural mortality among oysters at all times is particularly marked in their early months. The newly born young are for few hours free swimming creatures, waited about by tides and currents, and unless they settle down on a suitable surface they quickly per ish. After attaining the size that is visible to the naked eye they are not able to change their position. When the temperature, density, tides and cur rents are favorable the floating young go to the bottom and become attached to the shells of old oy Sters or to any other hard surfaces that may be pres ent, but all that fall on a muddy or soft sandy bottom or on slimy sur faces soon perish. Modern oyster cul- ture aims primarily to save the free swimming young, and oyster planters therefore provide clean shells, tiles and other hard objects to which the .'spat,7 as the young oysters are called, can attach themselves.
 Oysters have been under culture long CT than any other shellhsh. A simple type of cultivation fourished in China at a very remote period and probably antedated by some centuries the begin ming of oyster culture in Italy, which was about the year 100 B. c. With the increasing demand for oysters they came to be cultivated In all the impor. tant maritime countries of Europe. In other parts of the old world and ih the western hemisphere the growing of oysters by artificial means has become an important industry, so that today oysters are the most extensively culti- vated of all aquatic animals.
 The human animal Is not the only one that looks with favor upon the edi- ble qualities of the oyster At every stage in Its career 1t is attacked by horde of dangerous enemies, some of which are most destructive after the oyster has put on its stoutest armor. Before the young oyster attaches itself 1t Is extensively consumed by adult oysters and various other shellfsh as well as by fishes that strain their food from the water When the oyster at tains Its shell new set of shellfsh enemies provided with drills begin their attacks and extract the soft parts through minute holes that they make in the valves.
 The oyster growers of Long Island sound and adjacent waters suffer heavy losses from the Inroads of star fishes, which, moving in waves over the bottom, devour every oyster in their path. In a single season they . have been known to destroy in one state several hundred thousand bush els of marketable oysters. It seems strange at first that weak creature \ like the starfsh should be able to prey on an animal so strongly fortified as an oyster. The starfish attaches It. self to the lips of the oyster shell and exerts a steady and long sustained suction with each of its numerous small suckers. After time the pow erful adductor muscle of the oyster becomes fatgued, the valves open, and the starfsh inserts its stomach and de- yours the helpless oyster at leisure.
 Other enemies of the grown oyster are fishes with powerful jaws armed with crushing teeth. On the Atlantic coast the most destructive fish is the black drum, 8 school of which may virtually clean out an oyster bed in one night. On the Pacific coast spe-