THE OYSTER-INDUSTRY. 117 



the fresh water causes them to change in color somewhat, makinjj the flesh a purer white; and it bloats them into 

 an ajipearance of extreme fatness, which is very appetizing. Most persous believe this to be a true increase of 

 substance and weight, but it is no more than a puffing up. 



Picking and culling. — Before the oysters are thrown into the fi-CvSh water they are picked over somewhat, 

 and the worthless stuff is thrown upon the banks of the stream — dead oysters, periwinkles, conchs, stones, and 

 much other useless matter. Another more particular sorting remains to be done after the stock is taken from the 

 stream, and before being sent to the city. This consists in knocking bunches to pieces and assorting into the various 

 sizes known to the trade, and is technically known as "culling". All of the refuse-stuff resulting from these 

 manipulations is heaped upon the bank, and is used to fill in low spots, or carted away to be burned into lime. 

 Late in the fall this is terribly cold work. Nowadays the oysters are dipped out of the shallow water with forks, 

 similar to the farmers' dung-forks, and the men wear rubber-boots that reach to their waists, but the old oysterraen 

 remember very well the winter terrors of the time before rubber-boots were invented and when they picked uj) the 

 oj'sters with their fingers. 



Winter gleanings. — The main crop has been gathered by the time Christmas is near, but many scattered 

 oysters yet remain, that have escaped both tongs and dredges. The grounds are then given up to the laborers, who 

 have been employed, during the summer and fall, and under a new imiiulse these men go over the grounds again 

 with tongs and dredge. They work on shares usually, returning to the owner of the beds one-half of the results, 

 which makes a really handsome thing for the gleaners, whose work, in this way, lasts from two to three weeks, 

 making three or four days a week, each man often clearing as his portion from four to five dollars a day. At any 

 rate, such generally is the practice, with its results, at Keyport, New Jersey, "where for many years the principle 

 of the good old biblical rule, of not forgetting the gleaners, is almost religiously observed in the last gathering of 

 this harvest of the sea." 



New York oyster-laws. — At the principal ports of this oyster-region New York firms have agents who buy 

 and pack oysters for shipment to the west, to Europe, to New York, or Philadelphia; city dealers also cruise about 

 the beds in vessels and buy loads of stock trom the various planters; and the planters themselves carry their stock 

 to the New York market in their sloops, to be disposed of at the best advantage, or vie with one another in noisy 

 rivalry in pre|)aring the bivalves and getting them first to the steamboat for the city. 



The Albany oyster-market flpty years ago. — ^A pleasing tradition has been preserved of the days long 

 ago, before the oyster-business became organized into the commercial system, which now handles the enormous supply 

 that finds its way into every county of every state in the Union. It is contained in the Eev. Samuel Lockwood's 

 articles upon American oysters, published in the Popular Science Montldy for 1874. One of the great markets for 

 oystermen forty to fifty years ago was Albany, New York. The sloops would sail up the river, and sometimes forty 

 of them, loaded to the rail, would lie at the wharves of that city disposing of their living cargoes. From Albany, 

 which also derived a large amount of oysters and clams from Fairhaven, at the same time, they would be taken back 

 into the country in wagons, over the Erie canal as far as Buffalo, or sent northward bj^ stage to Lake Champlaiu. 

 If uusuc(;essful in selling to good advantage at Albany, the shippers would sail down and peddle their stock through 

 the towns along the banks. Out of this arose the systematic practice which Professor Lockwood describes in the 

 following i^aragraphs : 



Before the railroad (lays, our oyster-growers used early in the fall to cauvass the villages on the Hudson river for orders, to he tilled 

 just before the river should be closed with ice. The meaning of this is, that these men committed themselves to supply oysters iu the shell, 

 ■with the guarantee that the bivalves thus supplied should not die before their time came. The oysters were actually kept alive during 

 the greater part of the long winter. The fat bivalves were handled with some care, and were spread on the cellar-floor, the round or 

 lower side down, so .as not to allow the liquor to escape. 



That such a life required a great change of capacity or habit in the bivalves is evident ; and it needed a training, yes, an education, 

 ere the oyster attained to such ability. And this was the way it was done : Beginning early in the fall, the cultivator of the oyster took 

 up the fat bivalves from their bed where he had jjlanted them, and laid them a little higher up on the shore, so that for a short time each 

 day they were exposed out of the water. After a few days of this exposure by the retreating tide, they were moved a little higher still on 

 the shore-line, which gave them a little longer exposure to the air at each low tide. And this process was continued, each remove resulting 

 in a longer exposure. And with what results f Two very curious ones : inurement to exposure, and the inculcation of a provident habit 

 of making preparation for the same. What ! providence in an oyster ? Yes, when he's educated. When accustomed to this treatment, 

 ere the tide retires, the oyster takes a good hard drink, and retains the same until the tide returns. Once, while waiting for the stage at 

 a country hostelry, we overheard the following between two rustic practitioners at the bar: "Come, Swill, let's take a drink!" "Well, I 

 don't know. Ain't dry myself. Hows'ever, guess I will take a drink, for fear I might get dry !" With better philosophy on their side, 

 these educated oysters, twice in every twenty-four hours, took their precautionary drink. 



The French method of oyster-training is much more laborious. The adult bivalves are carefully spread out in the water, and periodical 

 lessons are given to each one individually. Each oyster, on this occasion, receives a tap, not with a ferule, but with a small iron instrument. 

 This causes the bivalve to close tightly. Finally the last day comes with its last premonitory tap. Its education thus finished, it takes 

 passage, with its fellow-graduates, for Paris. As a result of its education, it knows how to keep its mouth shut when it enters society! 



Prices of oysters, past and present. — The prices reported as received for oysters in 1840, did not greatly 

 differ from the present figures ; they were : 



For the poorest 50 cents per bushel. 



For "Cullens" 83 50 to §5 00 per 1,000. 



For "Big ones" $7 00 to §10 00 per 1,000. 



For "Extras" §15 00 to §25 00 per 1,000. 



