The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-06-22
SHRHyIP-OYSTER INDUSTRY GAINS
 IN IMPORTANCE
Mobile Center Of Exten- sive Seaport Distribu-
 ton System

plng or the Canneu anu tnoshass' PiVuu ucts. ,,. Bayou la Batre is the center of the seafood canning industry in the coun- ty, while Mobile is the center for the distribution of raw oysters and shrimp and also one of the large canner1es of these articles of food, which become daily in greater demand. Coden and Bayou la Batre are large shippers of raw oysters, Coden is coming to the front as a crab market, and Rayou Ia Batre is becoming a red snapper port of importance.
 Dauphin Island is an important port for shrimp and oyster catchers and shuckers, but handles it's products chiefly through canners or dealers on the mainland. Most of the population of the island, which is largely under nonresident ownership, make their livelihood, directly or indirectly. from the seafood industries.
 On the Baldwin county shore, at Bon Secour, and on other estuaries of lower Mobile bay, the cultivation of oysters is carried on upon large scale. Small oysters are taken from sthe public reefs and replanted on oy- ster beds under riparian ownership near the mouths of the streams which enter the bay from the east. There the bivalves grow rapidly and produce the celebrated Bon Secour s.plants," which are noted for their flavor and uniformity of size and shape. They are in great demand for the fancy raw trade.
 Go Together
 In Mobile county the oyster and shrimp industries go together. The same canneries put up both products and the same men take them from the waters of the bay and sound Some gstines the fleet of power boats and x fgeighters chiefly is engaged in catch 4ss, shrimp or bringing them to the caNseries At other times the same fleet>js to be found longing oysters on private beds or public reefs or freight ing in the oysters caught by the tong CTS. s',
 Recently third industry was start ed at Bayou la Batre, the manufacture of fish-scrap, for poultry food and fer tilizer, from shrimp heads and hnlls. and from menhaden and other fish that are not regarded as food varie- ties. This gives employment to fish ernen frequently at seasons when neither oysters nor shrimp are being
 
 poses.
 The prosperity of the coast section has been greatly increased since these industries became established on firm commercial basis, with fair prices es- abolished for the raw products and good pay for workers in all branches of the business. The people have good boats, pretty homes, good schools and churches, and they enjoy life more than do their friends in the interior, e # one may judge the average by gen. .eral appearances. They certainly seem s%happy and contended at work and at y play. Another feature of the seafood in- dustry along the Alabama coast is the fact that it is carried on very largely by native labor. Squads of foreign la- borers have been brought in from time to time at the height of some busy sea- son, and some of these people have re- mained to be absorbed in the resident population. But it will be observed that the great majority of the workers on the boats and in the factories, are Americans. Many of them are de-. ecendants of the first French and Span fish colonial settlers along these shores.
 The native population includes some of the most skilled schooner and small boat sailors in the world, who are as expert with the motor as with the sail
 Good roads in that part of Mobile county permit the hauling on trucks or busses of workers from a semi-circle of eight or ten miles to the canneries every morning when there are shrimp or oysters to be packed, returning in the afternoon or when the work is done. This enables the farmers family, in the truck, and satsuma orange growing communities to earn additional money when work is slack on the farm, and at the same time it gives the canneries ., the best and most intelligent class ot American workers in their industries. It works out to the profit of all and IS said to be an ideal arrangement.
 Shrimp Pickers
 Shrimp pickers, with their quick fingers and little experience, earn from $1.5O to $5 per day picking shrimp. The quantity that can be picked in given time depends in large measure upon the size of the shrimp and the sufficiency of the sup ply thereof. It is a work of opportun- ty as weather and other conditions en- ter so largely into the trawling of shrimp from the bays, sound or open gulf. Often it is either a feast or famine Bad weather drives in the boats occasionally, then all go out and return at about the same time. There is large ice factory connected with the cannery on the beach front, generally known as he ID. & D." cannery, and ice is used to keep the shrimp fresh until they can be worked by the pickers.
 Chief Oyster Inspector George Sprin- kle, who holds that position under the state department of conservation, esti- mates the number of shrimp boats now at work and those that soon will be place in commission in Alabama at 100. As the state requires license based on tonnage for each of hese boats. Mir. Sprinkle has the means to keep up with the number. The state also requires a license for each ''trawP or shrimp net.
 Oyster boats are licensed separately andfhe number of these now engaged be- ing fitted for service is also given as gre licensed both for oystering and for shrimping, and the license money goes into the state treasury to the credit of the conservation department, A part of the amount is utilized for the en- < forcement of the state laws relative to the taking of shrimp and oysters from Alabama waters.
 The "trawl," which really is q drag net, is the basis of the shrimp industry. . It is lowed behind a power boat. The mouth of the net is. held open by boards I held at an angle by bridle and kept < in place by the forward movement of theIboat, the bag dragging behind catch ing and holding the shrimp. The old