The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-09-01
MR. OSTREA IS DUE TO-DAY

MT. Ostrea, with Mrs. Ostrea, and the little Ostreas. are due to-day.
 MT. Ostrea belongs to the Lamelli- branch Mollusc family, and is popu- larly known as Oyster, this being a vulgar corruption of his real name. As Shakespeare says. however, an oyster by any other name would taste as good, and thousands of the old and devoted friends of MT. Ostrea will re- new his acquaintance to-day.
 Of course, there are people brave enough to defy the germs alleged to turk in MT. Ostret s midst when the temperature ranges high, but the majority prefer to play it safe and give MT. Ostrea the frigid stare during those months which haven't an "r' to their names AS a matter of fact, 1t probably isn't any more hazardous to consume an oyster on the thirty-first of August than it is on the first of Sep tember, but the"r" superstition is so firmly fixed in public mind that few gourmands indulge their oyster appe- tite until August has safely passed.
 Scientists tell us that it is the idle and sedentary habits of the oyster which make him so delicious to the human palate "The degeneration produced by sedentary habits in all Ia. mellibranchs,'' learned writer ex- plains, "has in the oyster reached US most advanced stage. The muscular protection of the ventral surface call ed the foot, whose various mod1fca- tions characterize the different classes of Mollusca, is almost entirely abort ed.'
 If the oyster had been an active industrious animal, like the widely advertised "busy bee" or the toiling ant, he would in all probability have become tough and stringy, and not the epicurean delight that he really is. thanks to his sluggish and slothful nature. This may seem, at first blush, an argument in favor of laziness, but it really isn't, because it is the sad fate of the oyster to glide down the gullet of a hungry human, while mo- body would think of eating the busy bees
 If he escapes the attentions of the oysterman, and dies naturally in his bed, an oyster may attain to the ripe old age of twenty years. The young oyster grows at the rate of about an inch in diameter in a year, although this varies considerably indifferent To- calities, the tame and domesticated "cultured" oyster usually having bet ter conditions of growth than the wild aborigines of the oyster tribe.
 The oyster is a queer bird in many ways, but perhaps the oldest of his traits is that of alternating in sex. It is said that the same oyster is a gentleman a part of the time and a lady at other times.
 Oyster lovers of North America and they are a mighty army stretching from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mex ico and from the Atlantic to the Pa cific-support an industry whose an- nual revenues are in the neighbor- hood of $10,000.000. Maryland is the center of the industry, and Baltimore the worlds leading canning center. The oysters of Massachusetts com mand the highest prices because of their firm and salty qualities. Texas supplies the major portion of all the oysters consumed west of the Missis- sippi, and the Texas industry has be- come a very important one.
 The oyster supply of the United States and Canada has kept pace with the growth in population, and oysters are about the only important food that have not considerably increased in price in the last quarter of a cen- tury. The quality of the bivalves has been increased as a result of oyster culture, which has now reached a stage undreamed of by our fathers.