Evening star., 1935-09-01
TONGERS PREPARE
TO START SEASON
Taking of Oysters Will Be-
ain TomorroW-YieId Is
ProbIematical.
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
BALTIMORE, August 3l.-Oyster
tongers were busy today overhaul
ing their gear in preparation for the
opening of the 1866 oyster season.
They faced the prospect of fair
crop" as they returned to work after
q four months vacation"
Thousands of bushels of shells have
been planted this Summer, but their
benefits will not be realized for several
years.
The season will actually open to-
morrow, the first of the month. but
State laws forbid the taking o. oysters
on Sunday. So it is that the tongers
will wait impatiently for daylight Mon
day, and that the lovers of good food
will have to wait for the first OF the
new crop.
Tongers Favored.
Tongers, whose work is hard ana
whose catch is small, are favored above
the dredgers. The season for credgers
opens November /. Because of the
depletion in the oyster beds of the
waters around Somerset County, the
longing season there does not open
until September Is.
Tongers are confined 20 work IN
shallow waters, as their apparatus is
operated by hand. They do not gen-
erally work in water deeper than 10
feet. Dredgers work the deeper waters,
and dredging grounds are marked out,
their boundaries being fixed by law.
Tongs used by the oystermen look
somewhat like two rakes, their handles
hinged together. and their teeth tac-
ing inward. The usual practice OF
the tonger is to anchor his boat with
as short a cable as possible. He then
rakes the bottom all around his boat
until he thinks he has gathered all
the legal sized oysters in reacn. after
this he lets out more cable and lets
his boat drift into position ever new
section of the bottom.
Yield Problematical.
Last Fall the 7,279,0OO pounds of
oysters sold at public markets in the
Fall netted oystermen more than
s477,000. Over 1000 pounds were
sold privately for total receipts of
s74,0ll. Whether the oyster profits
this year will be larger than last is
unknown. The oyster beds have yielded
a fuctuating return for a good many
years.
The total catch during the 1928-29
season was 1.928,000 bushels; in
l929-3O it was 1,781 900, in l93O-31 it
was down to 1,756,0 900. But in 1892
1t was up to 100000, only to drop
to a new low, 1,616,000, in 1928.
Last year it was 100000.
When oysters are abundant-a rare
condition at preSent--it may take only
four or five scoops of the tongs to
gather a bushel of them. On private
beds an expert oysterman may tong
from 10 to Is bushels an hour al
though the work is very laborious.
The men rarely tong for more than
five hours in any one day, spending
the rest of the time "culling" their
catch. This consists Of separating and
returning to the water all oysters
less than a certain size.
Shell Is By-Product.
Maryland oysters aren't the kind
that have pearls, but they have an
other by-product which Is more or less
valuable. This is the oyster shell,
which accumulates in huge piles out
side the oyster packing houses. Shells
are used for the manufacturing of
chicken grit, for making shell lime or
for planting to give a good base for
the growth of later oysters. They are
rarely used now for building roads,
although this was formerly an i'm
portant use. oysters used for lime
bring from 81 to So per ton, while
chick grit sells for S12 to $40 per ton.
Ten per cent of the shells, by law, may
be taken by the Conservation Com
mission without payment to return
to the water to rebuild exhausted
oyster beds.