Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1916-11-16
Oysters, The Most Valuable Water
Crop


of the United States, and for a period Of
eight months the appetizing bivalve
reigns supreme as the most extensively
consumed product OF the water; but mil
lions of the people who eat the oyster
know little or nothing of its life history or
of the vast industry that the oyster sup
ports. a6. b. 4.s.. c-r-7 ~
OF all the products ofthe water, oysters
are, with the single exception OF the sea
terrings, the most valuable and most i'm
portant to the human race They owe
that economic preeminence 10 the fac;
that they have high food value and that
they are palatable, cheap, widely dis
tributed and easy to cultivate.
Oysters occur in greater or less abund-
ance on the shores OF all temperate and
tropical seas, but the supply in the arms
of the North Atlantic Ocean exceeds that
in all other waters combined. There are
at least 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
whichhas, however, many local varieties,
the little, native oyster Of the Pacific States
is of wholly different species.
In about thirty-five countries oyster
farming is aspecialindustry. rhe annual
oyster crop of the world now amounts 10
more than forty million bushels, for which
the fishermen and planters receive about
twenty-five million dollars. The United
States furnish nearly ninety per cent Of
the crop.
Few animals are more prolific than oYs-
ters; but OF the millions of microscopic
young that single full-grown oyster pro-
duces, only very small percentage sur
vive infancy. TheheavY natural mortality
among oysters at all times is particularly
marked in their early months. The new
ly 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
perish. After attaining size that is visI-
bic to the naked eye, they are not able to
change their position. When the tenn
perature, density, tides and currents are
favorable, the floating young go to the
bottom and become attached to the shells
OF old oysters or to any other hard sur
faces that may be present; but all that
fall on muddy or soft, sandy bottom or
on Shiny surfaces soon perish. Modern
oyster culture aims primarily TO save the
free-swimming young, and oyster plant
ers therefore provide clean shells, tile
and other hard objects TO which the
"spat," as the young oysters are called,
can attach themselves.
Oysters have been under culture longer
than any other shellfish. A simple type
of cultivation flourished in China at very
remote period and probably antedated by
some centuries the beginning 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 important maritime countries OF
Europe. In other parts OF the Old World
and in the Western Hemisphere the grow
ing Of oysters by artificial means has be-
come an important industry, so that to-
day oysters are the most extensively cuI-
tivated of all aquatic animals.
The human animal is not the only one
that looks with favor upon the edible
qualities OF the oyster AT every Stage in
its career il is attacked by horde OF
dangerous enemies, some of which are
destructive after the oyster has put on its
stoutest amor. Before the young oyster
attaches itself, il is extensively consumed
by adult oysters and various other she'll
fish, as we'll as by fishes that strain their
food from The water. When the oyster
attains its shell, new set of sheIlfish
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 starfishes,
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 bushels OF marketable oysters.
II seems strange, at first. that weak
creature like the starfish should be able
TO prey on an animal so strongly fortified
as an oyster. The starfish attaches itself
TO the lips OF the oyster shell and exerts
steady and long sustained suction with
each Of its numerous small suckers. Az
ter time the powerful adductor muscle
of the oyster becomes fatigued, the valves
open, and the starfish inserts its stomach
and devours 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 isthe black drum,
a school OF which may virtually clean out
an oyster bed in one night; on the Pa
cific coast a species of sting ray is the
chief offender.
The United States is particularly fortu-
nate in its oyster supply. The output
here is larger and more valuable than
elsewhere. Moreover, on account Of the
relative low cost OF oysters 10 the con-
sumer in the United States, the consump-
ton in proportion TO the total population
is greater than in any Of the other leading
oyster producing countries.
Our annual oyster outputs worth about
seventeen million dollars 10 the pro-
ducers. The yield has increased seventy
per cent in quantity since 1880. and un-
der the favorable conditions that now
prevaiI Is becoming larger every wear In