Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1916-11-09
THE OYSTER CROP
One Of the Most Valuable Of
Those Gathered From the Sea.
ONLY THE HERRING BEATS 1T
OF the More Than Forty Million Bush
els Of These Nutritious BivaIves Gath
cred Yearly This Country Supplies
Over 90 Per Cent.

| OF all the products Of the water
oysters are, with the single exception
of the sea behring's, the most valuable
and most important to the human race
They owe that economic pre-eminenc,
to the fact that they have high foot
value and that they are palatable
cheap, widely distributed and easy t
| cultivate.
Oysters occur in greater or less
abundance on the shores of all temper
ate and tropical seas, but the supply II
| the arms of the North Atlantic oceaI
exceeds that in all other waters com
bined. There are at least a hundred
different kinds or species of oysters
with 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 varie-
ties; the native oyster of the Pacific
states of wholly different species.
In about thirty-fve countries oyster
farming is a special industry The an
nual oyster crop of the world now
amounts to more than 100000 bush
els, for which the fishermen and plant
ers receive about $25,0O00O0. 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 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 a 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
other hard surfaces that may be pres
ent, but all that fall on a muddy or
soft, sandy bottom or on Shiny sur
faces soon perish Modern oyster Gull
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,"
as the young oysters are called, can
attach themselves.
Oysters have been under culture long
type Of cultivation tlourished In China
at very remote period and probably
by some centuries the begin
ming of oyster culture in Italy, which
was about the year 100 B. G. With the
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 in the
western hemisphere the growing of
oysters by artificial means has become
an important industry, so that today
oysters are the most extensively cult
waited of all aquatic animals.
The human animal is not the only
one that looks with favor upon the edi-
BILE qualities of the oyster. At every
stage In its career 1t is attacked by a
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 shellfish as
well as by fishes that strain their food
from the water When the oyster at
tains its shell new set of shellfish
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. 1t seems
strange at first that a weak creature
like the starfish 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 she'll and
exerts steady and long sustained
suction with each of its numerous
small suckers. After time the pow
erful adductor muscle of the oyster
becomes fatigued the valves open, and
the starfish inserts its stomach and de-
YOURS the helpless oyster at leisure.
Other enemies of the grown oyster
Dre fishes with powerful jaws armed
with crushing teeth. On the Atlantic
coast the most destructive fish is the
black drum. a school of which may
virtually clean out an oyster bed in
one night. On the Pacific coast a spe-
cies of sting ray is the chief offender.
The United States is particularly
fortunate in its oyster supply. The
ot1tDuf haro IL larper and more Valu-