896 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



15,000 of these monsters stored away in bins in a cellar 

 under the house. Sometimes even larger specimens are to 

 be met with. Cow Bay is an inlet of Long Island Sound, 

 about fifty miles above New York, (s) From information 

 received in 1883 (says M. S. Lovell), kindly given by the 

 manager of the restaurant, which is now carried on by a 

 son of Mr. R. Burns, it appears that since 1879 the business 

 has been doubled and double the amount of oysters 

 consumed. 



It is not only in seaport towns in America that oysters 

 are eaten in enormous quantities, but towns a 1000 miles 

 inland are well supplied, and oyster suppers are as common 

 in Cincinnati or St. Louis as in New York or Baltimore. 

 It was stated by Mr. Consul Rainall, in 1869, that eight 

 millions of bushels of oysters are annually landed at 

 Baltimore for home consumption and packing, and as many 

 more to other places. Baltimore is the largest oyster 

 market in the world. The average consumption for seven 

 months in the year is 35,000 bushels per day. One firm 

 alone from October ist till June ist averages 4000 bushels 

 a day, packing from 16,000 to 25,000 cans daily, hermeti- 

 cally sealed, containing i Ib. and 2 Ibs. of oysters. 



Wading through such an array of facts and figures (as 

 represented in the tables of Professor Goode, and of which 

 those quoted herein under his name are only the totals) I 

 am almost tempted to believe with him, that "A speedy 

 extermination of this most valuable mollusc will doubtless 

 result, unless some effective means of protection and 

 artificial culture are soon employed. 



"The preservation of the oyster-beds," he continues, 

 "is a matter of vital importance to the United States, for 

 oyster-fishing, unsupported by oyster-culture, will, within a 

 (s) " Through America," by W. G. Marshall, M.A. 



