308 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



oysters are shelled, or in one near at hand; and whatever may be the 

 receptacle used, it must contain only a quarter of its capacity of juice.* 



A tinner is employed in each establishment to close the cases, by 

 soldering a small round piece of tin over the opening. The cases are 

 then placed in a refrigerator, where they remain until sent to the rail- 

 road. 



When dispatched to distant cities, those of the West for instance, 

 the cases are inclosed in a box of pine wood containing about a dozen. 

 These are tightly packed, and a space is left in the middle of the 

 box for the reception of a piece of ice, which preserves the oysters 

 until they reach their destination.! 



The number of barrels and boxes or cases required annually, at Fair 

 Haven, is so great that two large manufactories have been established 

 for the manufacture of these articles, and they employ about one hun- 

 dred and fifty persons. That for the making of kegs uses steam as a 

 motive-power. Everything in the establishment is done by machinery. 

 One machine cuts out the staves, a second the bottom ; others pierce 

 the holes, and form the plugs. The kegs at wholesale bring the follow- 

 ing prices : Kegs containing a gallon, 81.08 a dozen ; kegs containing a 

 half-gallon, 94 cents a dozen. J Tin cases are worth $5.50 a hundred. 



Oysters without the shell are divided into two classes — those of large 

 size selling for twenty cents a gallon more than the others. They sell 

 at the rate of $3 for half a dozen cases, each of which contains from sev- 

 enty to one hundred mollusks. 



In 1858 the number of oysters used by the establishments of Fair 

 Haven amounted to 2,000,000 bushels. 



It has long been known that few occupations in America are more 

 profitable than the packing and transportation of oysters. In 1856, the 

 Journal of Commerce reported that a single house at Fair Haven had 

 made $100,000 in the last four years. In that very year the Levi Eowe 

 house, which has agencies at Buffalo, Detroit, Cleveland, &c, alone 

 transported 150,000 gallons. Twenty vessels were in its employ, and 

 from seventy-five to one hundred young women were engaged in its 

 workshops during the winter. Twenty-five or thirty houses engross the 

 largest share of the business, some of them transporting as many as 

 1,500 bushels mollusks a day. 



The oysters planted in the bay of New Haven and in the Quinipiao 

 are all disposed of before winter, and during that season the establish- 

 ments of Fair Haven are regularly provided with mollusks from the 



*In the State of New York, dealers found guilty of selling oysters in barrels or boxes 

 containing more than a quarter of their capacity of liquor, are liable to a fine of $20. 



tWhen sent only a short distance the dealers adopt a more economical method. The 

 oysters, mingled with pieces of ice, are put into a kind of scuttle-cask, provided with 

 a cover, and thus are sent to Hartford, Syracuse, Utica, and to places even more dis- 

 tant. 



tThe kegs are made to contain two gallons, one, three-fourths, one-half, or one-fourth 

 of a gallon, according to size. 



