THE OYSTER AND THE OYSTER INDUSTRY. 47 



There are now 15 canneries in Baltimore, which city still leads in 

 number of canneries; 16 in Mississippi, 12 being at Biloxi; 18 in 

 Georgia, 4 at Savannah, 4 in and about Brunswick, and others at 

 smaller points; about 12 in South Carolina; 7 in North Carolina; 

 6 or 7 in Louisiana; and 4 or 5 in Florida. 



Oyster canneries, like raw houses, are located on the w^-ter front 

 with a wharf at which the oysters are unloaded from the boats. 

 Plate XIV, figure 1, shows a view of an oyster cannery. At most 

 canneries the oysters are unloaded from the boat in large tubs or 

 buckets, as j^reviously described, and dumped directly into cars 10 or 

 12 feet long, made of iron strips, basket-fashion, as in Plates XXIII 

 and XXV. The cars are then pushed on a track into the building. 

 Plate XXIII, figure 3, shows a line of 15 loaded cars, 20 bushels in 

 each car, 300 bushels in all. The capacity of tliis particular cannery 

 is 1,500 bushels per day. 



The cars of 03'sters are run into rectangular ii"on steamers, which 

 are often long enough to accommodate 3 cars at once. Steam is 

 passed through for from 3 to 1 minutes, depending on the thickness 

 of the shells. The cars are then pushed on out the other end of the 

 steamer, sometimes being afterwards switched to another track or 

 another room by the aid of the device shown in Plate XXV, figure 

 1 . The short piece of track upon which the car rests is also provided 

 with wheels, and the whole is rolled onto a lower track running at 

 right angles to the first. 



The steamed oysters are then opened directly from the cars by 

 shuckers or openers standing alongside (PI. XXV, fig. 2). Each 

 worker has a metal bucket, which is suspended by a hook to the 

 side of the car. The buckets are perforated to allow the escape of ex- 

 cess liquor. A knife is used, but no such skiU or strength is required 

 as is necessary in the case of raw oysters, since the steamed oysters 

 have been Idlled by the process and the shells are gaping and easily 

 separated. When a worker's bucket is filled, it is taken to the weigh- 

 ing window, payment being by weight, where either the money or a 

 ticket is received. Both men and women, and often children over 

 the legal age, do this work. In Alabama and ]Mississippi the work- 

 ers are largely of the Slavic races. In those States many of the 

 canning firms furnish quarters for then labor, often wood and water 

 being included. 



After being weighed, the oysters are washed two or three times 

 with tap water in vats or on tables and then carried in buckets to the 

 packing table (PI. XXVI, fig. 1). The general construction of such 

 a table is shown in the figure; it is made of wood, of convenient height, 

 and about 12 feet long by wide in the wider part and 3 in the nar- 

 rower. The packing is usually done by women or girls, who stand 

 along the sides of the table. The empty cans are supplied the packers 

 from boxes behind them, or often a supply is placed along the edge 

 of the table on which the oysters are piled. The packers at the farther 

 end (see figure) of the table fill the cans almost full, placing the 

 oysters in with the hands. They then put the cans in the rack or 

 trough extending along over the table. The bottom of this is an 

 endless belt which moves the cans forward until they are stopped 

 by the crossbar at the nearer end of the trough. One packer stands 

 on each side of the table, which is narrower here, takes the partially 

 filled cans from the trough, one at a time, places them on the balances 



