Evening star., 1925-02-13
OYSTER IS OLDEST
OF WATER PRODUCT
Chesapeake Bay Leads En-
tire World in 0utput-Cult-
! ure Started in China.

"Oysters are the most popular and
most extensively eaten of all she'll
fsh; economically, they are the most
important of all cultivated water
products, and, with the single eX-
ception of the sea herrings, the most
valuable of all aquatic animals" says
Hugh NJ. Smith, former United States
commissioner of fisheries, in a COM
munication to the National Geo
graphic Society in connection with
the recent typhoid scare.
The oyster crop of the world at
present amounts TO more than 1000,
600 bushels and is valued al nearly
S20, 100000 OF this output the share
of the United States is 10 per cent of
the quantity and IS per cent of the
value. OF the remaining portion the
greater part belongs to France.
I'm any consideration of the world $
oyster industry the United States
necessarily receives first and most
prominent mention, for there is no
country in which oysters occupy d
more important place. The output
here is larger and more valuable than
elsewhere, and the relative import
ance of oysters compared with the to-
tai fishery product is greater. Fur
thermore, among the leading oyster
producing countries the cost of oys-
the per capita consumption is greatest
III the United States.
The seven leading oyster States.
each of which produces in excess of a
million bushels annually, are: Mary
land. Virginia, New Jersey, Rhode
Island, New York, Mississippi and
louisiana
The body of water which produces
more oysters than any other in the
mi for Sfafn -tola
world, is Chesapeake Bay. Late sta
tistics of the oyster industry show
the preponderating Importance of the
bay-an output of more than seven
and three -fourthS million bushels,
valued at s4,460,000, or So per cent of
the quantity and p per cent of the
value of the entire oyster crop of the
United States for 1920.
Chinn's Early Oyster Culture.
oysters have been under culture
longer than any other shellfish, and.
indeed, than any other water crea-
ture. simple type of cultivation,
with the formation of artificial beds.
fourished in China at very remote
period, and probably antedated by
some centuries the inception of oys-
ter culture in Italy, about the year
100 B.C.
AT least 100 species are known.
with a rather wide range in size,
shape, habits, flavor and food value
Some excellent species exist in the
equatorial and subtropical regions,
but the best occur in temperate climes.
The northern limits of their habitat
are the Gulf of St. Lawrence and
southern Norway, in the Atlantic, and
Hokkaido and Puget Sound, in the
Pacific
"Oysters produce an immense num-
her of young in order to compensate
for the heavy mortality that occurs
at all stages of growth, but particu-
larly in the early months. 1t is an
astonishing biological fact that in
some species of oyster each sex is
represented by a different individual.
as in the oyster of the Atlantic coast
of North America, while in other
species both sexes are united in one
individual-the male stage alternat-
ing with the female, as in the COM
mon oyster of the Atlantic coast of
Europe.
The human animal is not the only
one that looks with favor upon the
edible qualities of the oyster. At every
stage in it's career it is attacked by
a horde of dangerous enemies, some
of which are most destructive after
the oyster has put on its stoutest ar
NOR and would seem to be almost in
vulnerable. Before it becomes at
tached the delicate oyster fry is eX-
tensively consumed by adult oysters
and various other shellf1sh,' as well as
by fishes like the Menhaden, which
are able to strain their food from the
water When the oyster attains it's
shell. a new set of shellfsh enemies,
provided with drills, begin their at
tacks and extract the soft parts
through minute holes. In some locali-
ties various snaillike mollusks do
immense damage to the beds of oys-
ters in their first year