Evening star., 1932-02-07

y portion please and very
Z rare-fried in butter" In
! the kitchen the chef cuts off
a fine, firm slice of flesh
from big fve-pound oyster
and drops it into the frying pan. Another order
comes in for oyster outlet and the chef coats
breadcrumbS around a choice piece of oyster
meat as big pancake.
Is this the way oysters will be served up y
our great -grandCt ildren? Instead of a half
dozen of the saltwater delcacies served to an
individual or fried, will the oyster beds OF
the future provide a menu of two or three as
big as ducklings broi'ed or baked, as the main
meat course for an entire family?
Science, studying the life of the oyster and
developing its culture along new lines doesn't
definitely promise a huge bvalVe that could
battle man-cating shark for the supremacy
OF the But oyster large enough to
supply oyster steak could be grown by means
of scientific cultivation In Australian waters
clans grow to be five and six feet in circum-
ference. variety of Philippine oysters un-
edible. IA inches long and a foot wide
Oystermcn now, however, have no picture in
their minds of shipping mammoth bivalyeS in
quarter sections to meat markets
THE National Association of Oyster Growers
and Dealers of North America, with modern
dDOuI Nlle iuCulE VI the OSStSI, olC "dt~4-
ing the scientific activities of field biological
station on the shore of Great South Bay, Long
Island, N Y. At the little town of Sayvil,e,
sponsored by the association, the most unique
scientific studio Of its kind in the world IS
studying the problems of the oyster.
There the natural processes of oyster develop
ment are being slowly duplicated under man
controlled conditions, and from the work arises
promise of great future instead of the decline
in produc.iOn which, until recently, has been
the forecast. oysters which once grew like
weeds and later we're nearly exhausted by lack
of mans conservation, are now facing period
of scientific cultivation in their a-bottom
farms.
In the Sayville laboratory three research
men working in cooperation with the chemi-
cal. archaeological and nutritional scientists
under the direction Of DR.. H. D. PeaSe in New
York pursue the answers to a question which
has remained unsolyed for more than 3o,000,OOO
wears. believed to be the are of the oyster race.
That question is What does an oyster eat?
What does he withdraw in his food from the
sea which makes tie delicious, nutritive morSel
that he is?
In fact the whole subject of the oysters
livelihood is being taken up. 1t Is JOB Tor
highly technical welfare workers who know
their chemistry, bacteriology, genetics, biology,
aouaculture agriculture of the water and
host of other sciences, all of which concern
an oysters life.
When the job first came to modern science
oysters. growing too thick for comfort, made
no provisions for the future. Knowing nothing
about housing conditions, they were cramping
themselves to death. At that time there was
little if any knowledge as to how man, the
oysters true friend, might grow them ana
cultivate them to get some assurance OF regu-
lar steady crops year after year. 1he oysters
enemies were one menace, but equally damag-
ing was the oysters menace to themselves, Tor
they really knew not what they did nor why.
Uncared for by Nature and allowed to perish,
they were taken in hand by man just In the
nick of time.
Now the proper diet, water temperatures and
environment in general are being studied by
the oysters scientifically minded welfare work.
ers at the Sayville laboratory and elseWhere-
Day after day. month after month, promising
to gde on year after year, these indomitable IN
yestigators take samples of the oysters en-
vironmental waters and study them in test
tubes and under the microscope, examining the
submarine plant and animal life which the
oyster takes in and in part assmiates.