Show CEHE oti THE 5 of fl DREDGE of the bivalves into the daily menu of the man who patronizes the hash houses of the big city the man who yelled through the hole in the wall was the waiter and an answering grunt aiom the blackness within told the man with the apron and the man with the appetite that tl e cook understood that what was wanted was halt a doen oysters fried with a 1 beral background ot bicken crackers rolled in the yolk of an egg the remarkable thing about the little incident related aboe is eliat oyster fishing in the waters of the east began at midnight august 31 yet at 1 0 a m septem bar 1 just two imn tes after the long had been d aped into the beds a thousand miles away a customer ha I 1 been able to successfully gathel a full sided meal of the delicacy in fact the first oyster farmer in tl e eake bay pulled up his first bivalve at the same time that the ies ddurant patron was doing the same the only difference in the distance chis tale might lead skeptical persons to believe that ither 03 are n an no or 1 the midnight admirer of the m asel was be ng ted the produce of tie eater knew that it ads september 1 and that os ers appear during each month the spell ng of which obtains an R hence he felt perfectly safe as the ers one by one slid from the fork into his mouth scientists tell us that many of the big dealers in boyste s nowadays are putting the holdover predict of the pre year into refrigerator plants in order that the in enor longing tor the delicacy previous to september 15 may be satiated it is just about the m addle of septem ber when we first begin to taste the catch of the yea from then on until tl e first of may including september october november december january february lots of oysters in it las two Rs march and april we have the bivalve stewed tried baked raw and in nun erous other ed ble and inedible ways bi t scientific friends tell us to take ir oysters in soul for the first two weeks of tie oyster season this they say will eradicate all possibly ty of evil effects the man vl has a cousin who is well aca acq aisted with the bi other of a soung adv who once found a pearl in a raw oyster of course will aiom the edict that season bivalves should be eaten cooked beca ise boiling dest roii the luster of the pearl and renders it valueless however there are few who do not relish oyster soup even if they s amply CAN T bear oyster so many fol lowed out the scientific ultimatum restaurant statistics have it that ried oysters are the most palatable to tl e dpn and women who patronize resta arants next comee ti e oyster stew and then the escalloped 0 ster follow ed in succession by the raw and the baked prod act scarcely less exciting than the rush for a western boom town site is the dash of the oystermen for the beds aftel n id light of the of at gust according to law not a boat m move until the 1st of september has ar rived I 1 arst to reach the oyster beds and first tc gather a car go and sprint tor the wharf means first in the market consee antly the Os termen strain every nerve to win in this i ace midnight of august 31 finds the fleet ready tor the r n every terman has h s boat as trim and ready as care can make it when the clock has ticked the month of august from the calendar the race is beg n it is a run of sev eral miles aiom tie SLOWLY OVER W oveter BED S starting point to the oyster beds and the few who are privileged to be present when the fleet gets under way participate in as pretty a dooni race as is to be seen on the batet with ever of canvas set the boats skim along in tl e ellei n every seii per exerting himself to the limit of his seamanship to creep ahead of the field to ins ire an even i ace to all a united states guard boat watches the start and sees that no captain moves the legal time the boat also accompanies the fleet to watch the fishing and prevent any piratical tricks when the beds are reached each oy terman mist fish in his own ground when the boa s reach the beds how they are able to find their own cutai fishing ground in the dark is a mister to tho landsman sometimes the mistake some one else s bed for theirs hence the presence of the g lard boat to prevent trouble between rival kippers who either intentionally or by e atten pt to fish on the same ground in recent many of the kippers of oyster boats have u fitted with steam and gasoline engines to beat their rivals wl leave to depend on sail power alone ir ous collection of engines were at alist seen on the boats discarded gasoline machines that would lave found tl air wa to the scrap heap but for the men had been oiled up and pit in for the sea son and steam engines that were never des ened tor marine work helped the fortunate skippers who owned them to show a clean pair of heels to the sailing craft when the grand r ish tor the oyster beds began biow that the ouster season is well under way and the mollusk is obtainable fresh from the waters of the east ern coast of the united states the topic of bivalves Is naturally an engrossing one with the epicure the rea son that fishermen cannot pluck oysters bet veen april and september is because the months of may J me jub and aug are the spawning months son betimes the b valves are transi canted d ir ng the season and than the reproduction is often an average oyster will rod ce 16 eggs and a very large one 60 when arti e the sex lal acts ooze from the genital openings and fertilization results from their accidental meeting in the water segments Seg menta tion results in five or six hours in the fi of a ciliated gas t 1 u i shaped tree swimming orgin 1 often car led by the cur to found new ind remote I 1 eds an embry nic alil boon u and the 1111 e oyster binks to the bot torn where if fa situated it becomes at cached by its left valve n d bradu ach assumes the ad lit form the recently attached spat Is to 1 90 of an inch in and its subsequent lanes with its environment S agle oysters on firm hot torn become round and deep but those in clusters 01 on soft bottom grow irregular and elongate on undisturbed beds they glow in clusters and the beds repose as a r lie on a muddy s ib stream upon which they have been built up aiom a comparatively small nucleus by the fixation year after year of the young upon the shells of their i predecessors oysters live from above low water mark to a depth of 15 fathoms where dens ty is between 1 and 1 OS the optic m being from 1 oil to 1 and in i ranc of temp entire which in chesapeake bay extends from 39 degrees F to 90 degiers F the embryos and try re quire more equable and stable conditions the tempera tire required being between 68 degrees and 80 degrees F the best and most beds are commonly in strong tidal currents which disseminate the try and food and keep the old shells clean eno agh to catch the spat diatoms constitute abo it 90 per cent of the oyster s food the rest consisting of other small plants and animals and in the breeding season of its own eggs and arv the lat ter are eaten by other also and from its attach ment i it a large size the os ster is preyed up on by starfish drills Uro drun fish rays and other aggressive enen ies wl lie it wages a passive fight against starvation and suffocation with mussels barna clea sponges worms aquatic vegetation and other prolific or lux briant organisms growing on the bebb ostrea Virgl nica bocc irs aiom tie gilt of saint law rence to the tropics but between cape breton and cape cod the river maine is Us only locality it has also been introduced in san francisco bay where it breeds to a limited extent the greatest production pio is in Chebi peake ba where the yield Is from the natural beds most of the oysters aiom new anglani and from new york and the outer coast of new jersey are produced by planted beds the entire yield of the pacific coat la similarly de lived and there has been recently a considerable u in oter cult ire in new jerse virginia and other states the number of persons engaged in the industry indu str Is estimated at 0 CO but as many of them are employed fart fhe year in other fl sherles farming not available Is the etc definite statistics are most extensive market ind new lorl has a consi lei able export trade with euro the native oyster ot the pacific coast is a small thin shelled species in 1901 bushels valued at bol 19 were marketed maik eted on the I 1 coast the european 1 remd flora italy to norway it Is a lound thin shell species n ore shai ely than the species and hern aparo bitic first female and afterwards male t is leab prolific fic than its american rela develon n ent in alve and the komg undergo the mantle chamber of the m ther it in water of full or almost tull organic density rhe oystein t jai ui bocc ir in aid moderately the whole brackish or moderately salt large salt 1 fo ind and a berj of ostlee arc fo ind in deep water mani other species in temperate an I 1 tropical seas the world the oyster ai pears to hive had its origin in some known lorms the lambly is found also in the P in the it Is represented by a stron gli form ale tioila form becomes more prominent in the ar d cretaceous there are also the common shells of and 1 in the jurassic an I 1 Creta ceo s ostlee itself is known in the M b it it attained its bixl mum of size d abundance n the tertiary the sandy marls of this period in the united states often contain cicat I 1 mil erb ot very large of oysters owing to the n t the natural beds and their inability to s apply the lemand for oysters it has been found necessary to ti artificial methods of production 11 an annease in the n imber of eggs fertilize 1 2 an Inci east in the surfaces available for fixation an 1 also of the u imbed of it taching 3 the savin of spat and oun which would naturally fall victims t en cm PS and physical conditions and 4 the of ba ren bottoms and naturally food but a small pait of the aai under wite s foi oysters haa been utilized by matuie toi lack of s bo lies for the attachment f the oung in the united states such bairen bottom is utilized b clearing it of all rub bish and either glanting to collect the spat or else boune oysters seed that they may improve in under conditions safer and sie shale and quality more favorable than in their original in certain places ither method mav succeed bit commonly a locally loc allt ts bettar adapted to one th in the other the roost suitable bottom lor astei consists of firm m id or of a firm si with i thin surface of boft m id but beable sand bottom Is us lalev deficient in food irose band dritto an I 1 coers the and very soft mud ingolfs and stifles them or ices in terlow elongate stock mid nit nally too soft may be bv over it shells sand 01 other ma terdal which on 01 near tie surface furnishes firm upon which tie growing oyster may repose in sec anity I 1 01 spat collecting it Is frea bently advantageous to uso hard mud gravel 01 rocky bottom in shoal wate hi adapted to adult oysters from de fici ency if food the bottom being and its marked with stakes 01 buoys either system may be adopted to with circumstances generally seed i lanting is moie certain in its results and yields an cher returns to the vary from bloaters one half inch in diameter to individuals almost ready foi market but ordinarily they are between one and inches long ahey are obtained aiom plant eps mating a specialty of seed or from natural biada their cost varying from ten cents to 1 ier bushel tie barkei billed stock sei ante wel shaped and free artoni bil nging highel props ind ahing the best results |