The Oyster Industry
A father in North Carolina has recently been the recipient of an ovation in Washington, D. C. The president and members of Congress rested from their manifold duties for a while and the capital city was astir because this father has heard 34 children say papa! No sooner had the A .P. released the news and the picture of the proud father, but an indignant colored daddy asked where he came in. "This pappy business makes me sick. Shucks, I have 37 kids, 34 ain't nothin."
Here comes the lowly oyster to spoil the whole business. What is 34 compared to 9,000,000. That is the number of eggs an average female oyster lays in a season. It is fortunate that the enemies of baby oysters are legion, for at the rate of 9,000,000 a year the Ocean would be filled with oysters in places where the bivalve thrives.
Since the oyster industry is one of the most important industries, probably the most important on the Eastern Shore with the exception of potato raising, we will give the readers of the "Enterprise" a bit of information about the little delicacy. Permit us to say that we have traveled far and near, but we have yet to find oysters anywhere that have a better flavor than the kind produced on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. We do not wonder that this produce is in demand far beyond the borders of the Old Dominion. The Chambers of Commerce may tell the world that here is an article worthy of the table of a king.
We will begin at the beginning and give the life story of our personal friend, for many oysters have entered the ministry. When the newly hatched oysters are in the swimming stage between May and September they are gulped down by hungry fish at the rate of several hundred at one swallow. If they are fortunate enough to escape with their lives and go down to the bottom and start life as tiny oysters, they are devoured by starfish, ray and other hungry denizens of the deep. Then, if they manage to escape all their enemies and are living snugly in their one story bungalow, a sea snail drills a hole through the shells and sucks out the poor bungalow dwellers until Neptune pronounces the benediction. On the dead shell of brother oyster new oysters attach themselves and if they live they end in a tin can or on the table of a hungry man who "just loves them on the half-shell with some horse radish, catsup and crackers."
It is estimated that an oyster has one chance in a million to reach old age. If the adult oyster lives his full span of years, three or four years, being the age of maturity, it deserves a great deal of credit. But no, about the only reward it gets, is the honor of being eaten by a hungry brute. It has been stated by an author in "the Pioneer" that an oyster, if undisturbed, might live a hundred years. Let us note in passing that as we count the age of a tree by the number of rings grained in the wood, we may count each season's oyster growth by a succession of limy layers which overlap like the shingles on a roof.
The favorite habitat of oysters is a gravel or rocky bottom with mud deposits, where the current is not strong enough to dislodge them from their anchorage. There they await their doom, to be picked up sooner or later by dredge, rake, tong, or hand. Oysters are left handed, that is the left side is usually larger than the right and thicker. As a rule they fasten themselves on the left side of anything hard that is to their liking, rock, sunken wood, bits of china or other bric-a-brac dropped overboard by passing crafts. Oystermen have found oysters attacked to all sorts of things from cups and saucers to platters and bowls, from pieces of iron to false teeth.
Oysters feed principally on minute plants, called diatoms, which live on the bottom or float. These diatoms in turn feed on mineral matter to be found in "oyster water." The two shells composing the oyster's home are fastened together by a hinge. The muscle that fastens the body to the shell, opens the valves about half an inch and closes it at intervals. When the shells are open the water flows in and the oyster has its meals.
A word of oyster pearls you have never found. The only oyster that makes pearls is found in the tropics. Once in a hundred moons an American oyster has a fit when a tiny grain of sand gets on the inside. It irritates its delicate body and secretes layer after layer of mother-of-pearl over the object and presto, a pearl is born in a day. If you, reader of this paper, find one then share your profit with this writer, for he has always had to dig for his living.
Oysters are nourishing, oysters are fine for the system and we have the advantage on the "Shore" over millions of people who live inland. Eastern Shore oyster dealers, you have the goods. There is yellow gold in every man's back yard and there is gold in the oyster. Some men will find it, others will continue to complain about hard times. The fellow who wants his ship to come in, sails on and on until, like Columbus, he discovers his promised land. This is true on the Eastern Shore as it is true everywhere. We have the goods How to deliver the goods is in the hands of the readers of this paper. Industry and cooperation are the master keys. We landlubbers are under lasting obligation to the hardy men "who work in the water" these cold days. Every oyster we eat represent hardships we seldom dream about. May these "watermen" come into their own!