44 THE OYSTER AND THE OYSTER INDUSTRY. 



PREPARATION FOR MARKET OR SHIPMENT. 



Oysters are usually shipped in three general conditions — in the 

 shell; shucked, on ice; and canned.'^ The building where oysters 

 are handled in either or both of the first two conditions is referred 

 to as an oyster house or, in some sections, especially to distinguish 

 it from a cannery, as a "raw house" or "raw-oyster house." If 

 oysters are canned, the plant is known as a cannery. Plate XIX, 

 figure 1 , shows the front view of a largo oyster house. Oyster houses 

 are provided with a wharf of some sort, so that the boats may be 

 unloaded directly, as described above. 



IN THE SHELL. 



Oysters are shipped in the shell usually in barrels, sometimes in 

 sacks, without ice, although for long distances a refrigerator car is 

 often used. In many cases, especially for shorter hauls or transporta- 

 tion by river boats, the barrels are not headed, a piece of heavy gunny- 

 sack being fastened over the top of the barrel. A considerable 

 export trade in oysters to England is carried on from the waters of 

 New York and Now England. These oysters go in barrels holding 

 3 bushels and one-half peck, headed up. Only the best-shaped, 

 selected oysters are used for the export trade. 



A large number of oysters are thus handled in the shell, since oysters 

 on the half shell have found a place on the menu of the leading 

 hotels and restaurants. For this purpose oysters from certain 

 beds have come to be esteemed as most desirable. These have 

 acquired trade names by which they are universally known and which 

 are derived from the locality from which the oystors are taken. 

 The best-known examples are the Blue Points from beds near Blue 

 Point, a cape on the south side of Long Island ; Cotuits, from Cotuit 

 Harbor, Mass., and Lynnhavens, from Lynnhaven Bay, Va. There 

 is a growing tendency to look upon these terms merely as trade 

 names and to employ them to designate any oyster answering the 

 requirements of size and shape of these oysters, regardless of the 

 waters from which they were taken. 



Blue Points (PI. I) are small oysters, about 3 to 4 inches long by 

 2 to 2| inches in width. They are rather rounded in form and the 

 shells are fairly smooth. The meats are small and of very delicate 

 flavor, making these oysters very acceptable when served raw on 

 the half shell. For this reason Blue Points have acquired a wide 

 reputation. Lynnhavens (PI. XX) and Cotuits (PI. XXI) are larger 

 oysters than Blue Points and of more angular shape. Because of 

 their fatness and flavor they have become highly esteemed. 



Oysters are shipped in the shell to points on the Pacific coast both 

 for the market and for planting as seed or for fattening. In 1915, 

 over two-thirds of the 156,104 bushels of oysters produced on the 

 Pacific coast were raised from transplanted eastern oysters.^ 



a One firm puts out an oyster powder made by extracting in a vacuum the moisture fiom oyster meats. 

 This powder is sold in small vials packed in pasteboard cartons and is used in making broths and soups. 

 So far as the writer is aware, only one firm puts such a product on the market. 



b Radclifle, L. Fishery Industries of the United States. Report of the Division of Statistics and Methods 

 of the Fisheries for 1918. Appendix X, Report, U. S. Commissioner of Fisheries, 1918, 167 pp. Washington, 

 1919, 



I 



