Show abdule daie rp Q 4 4 V t anatomy of the oyster prepared h hy y the national society w hington D Q ct service arne BE chesapeake bay oyster r grounds are arc today resounding with the clank of thousands of f oyster tongs and tons of oysters destined to satisfy mans craving for the luscious bivalves are shuffling into the holds of the bay bays S oyster fleet oysters are the most popular and most extensively eaten of au all shellfish economically they are the most important of all cultivated water products and with the ibe single exception of sea herrings the most valued rallied of all aquatic animals in at least 35 countries oysters oyster S support rapport a special fishery and in various other countries enter into the food supply on the shores of all the temperate and tropical oceans and seas oysters occur in greater or less abundance but the supply witte la the north atlantic exceeds that ot of all the other waters combined not less than men and women are engaged in the oyster industry and the capital invested in vessels boats apparatus oyster lands and cultural establishments aggregate many million dollar ithe the oyster crop of the world amounts to over bushels of this output the share of the united states is iq 79 per cent of the remaining portions the greater part belongs to france i oysters produce an immense number of young in order to compensate for the heavy mortality that occurs at all stages of growth but particularly in the early months it li Is an astonishing tact fact that in tome some species of oysters each sex Is represented bv a different individual as in the oyster of the atlantic coast of north america while in other species both sexes are united in ID one individual si cafter after the oyster attains a size that Is visible to the unaided eye it Is incapable of changing its position this is in marked contrast with the newly born young which is t a free swimming creature floating about with tides and currents and quite as likely to settle down on a far distant bank or bar as to rejoin its progenitors how the tha young are saved of the millions of microscopic young liberated by a single full grown oyster only an exceedingly emall percentage become attached to a suitable bottom form a shell and nil enter on a career that will ter ler initiate on the table in two to four years tears when the temperature density ta tides and currents are favorable the young will settle on an existing bar or bed covering the shells of the old oysters and any other hard substances or objects that may be present all the young that tall fall on a muddy or soft sandy bottom or on surfaces that are slimy are lost oyster culture there fore alms primarily to conserve the free swimming young which it accomplishes CO comp in lishes by sowing clean oyster shells or other clutch to aich the spat can attach or by collecting the young on tiles or bru brush sh wised raised above the bottom or suspend td beleen surface and bottom oysters hae been under culture longer than any other shellfish and indeed than any other water creature A simple type of cultivation with the formation of 0 artificial beds flourished in china at a very remote period and probably antedated by some centuries the inception of 0 oyster culture in italy about the year 13 0 with the advance of civilization and the increase in population oysters were in 10 greater demand and of necessity come under cultivation in all the important marl maritime time countries of en cu rope where at the present time fully BO 00 per der cent of the output represents oysters that have undergone some borne kind of culture in other parts of 0 the old world the of 0 oysters by artificial mean leans has become an important industry austry while in the western 1 sphere oyster farming has pro 1 gressed to such a point that the an mial DILI crop now exceeds the total product of the rest of the world 1 0 has hordes of enemies oysters are thus become the most ext extensively e cultivated of all aquatic animals and the yearly product of t the oyster farms is many times more ore valuable than that of all other operations combined colef lel beneficiaries the cultivation of oysters Is made iveel necessary sary by the exhausting of the natural beds it Is made possible by private ownership or control of ter producing bottoms and it Is greatly facilitated by the peculiar susceptibility of oysters to increase and improvement by artificial means the human animal is not the only one that looks with tavor favor upon the edible qualities of the oyster at every stage in its career it Is attacked by a horde of dangerous enemies some of which are most destructive tive after the oyster has put on its stoutest armor and would seem to be almost invulnerable before it becomes attached the delicate oyster fry Is er extensively consumed by adult oysters and various other shellfish as well as by fishes like the menhaden which are able to strain their food from the wa ter when the oyster attal attains as its shell a new set of shel shellfish lils h enemies provided with drills begin their attacks and extract the soft parts through minute holes ma made d e in valves the oyster growers of long island sound and adjacent waters suffer large losses from the inroads inroad of starfishes star fishes which come in from deep water and move in waves over the bottom devouring every oyster in their path and sometimes destroying several hundred thousand bushels of marketable oysters in one state in a single season other enemies of the grown oyster are fishes with powerful jaws armed with crushing teeth on the atlantic coast the most destructive fish Is the black drum a school of which may literally clean out an oyster bed in one night on the pacific coast a species of stingray Is the chief offender further damage is done to oysters by the encroachments encroach ments of mussels barnacles barnacled barn acles sponges etc which sometimes occur so densely on the shells as to cut off food and oxygen and thus greatly retard the growth of the oysters ari any consideration of the worlds oyster industry the united states necessarily receives first and most prominent mention for there Is no country in which oysters occupy a more important place the output here Is larger and more valuable than elsewhere and the relative importance of oysters compared with the total fishery product Is greater furthermore among the leading oyster producing countries the cost of oysters to the consumer Is least and the per capita consumption Is greatest in the united states additional evidence of the conspicuous position held by the oyster Is seen in the facts 1 that it Is taken in every coastal state except one 2 that in 15 states it Is the chief fishery product anda and 3 that it Is the most extensively cultivated of our amuat le ic animals great industry in america the annual oyster output at this time Is about bushels with a value to the producers ot of nearly the yield increased 70 per cent in quantity between asso and 1012 during the past decade there has been a slow decrease in the size of the crop the limit of production has perhaps been practically reached in certain states and in most states th the e industry Is capable of great expansion pan sion in recent years south atlantic and gulf states have experienced a noteworthy augmentation of yield as a result of increased appreciation of the oyster resources and increased encouragement given to oyster culture the seven leading oyster states at this time are rhode island new york new jersey maryland virginia mississippi and louisiana in each of which the production ranges from a million bushels upwards maryland is the ranking state the rank early attained by the united states stales in the oyster industry was due to the great area of the oyster beds but the maintenance of that rank depends on the general adoption of oyster culture as the only certain means of insuring a yearly increasing crop that will keep pace with the increasing demand of the oysters marketed last year 50 per cent cime came from private or cultivated grounds owing however to the improvement of the quality and shape of oysters by cultivation the product of the private beds represented 70 per cent of the total value of the yield of market oysters |