OYSTER 



4439 



OYSTER 



side of the body. The limy substance which 

 makes up the shell is secreted in layers by the 

 mantle, that on the inside being called mother- 

 of-pearl (which see). Anyone who examines 

 the outside of an old oyster-shell can see the 

 succession of layers overlapping, like shingles 

 on the roof of a house. As each layer repre- 

 sents a season's growth, scientists judge an oys- 

 ter's age by the thickness of the shell. It is 

 claimed that- oysters, if left undisturbed, may 

 live to be 100 years old. Sometimes a grain of 

 sand or other hard object becomes lodged on 

 the inside of the shell. In such cases, to pro- 

 tect its soft body from irritation, the oyster 

 secretes mother-of-pearl over the object and in 

 due time a pearl (which see) is formed. The 

 oysters that are famed as pearl makers, how- 

 ever, are not the edible species of the north 

 temperate zone, but are found in the tropics. 



Although the oyster has no head, being all 

 body, it has a mouth, consisting of a funnel- 

 shaped opening at the narrowest part of the 

 body. This mouth is provided with minute, 

 fingerlike projections, which select from the sea 

 water the myriad plant and animal organisms 

 on which the oyster feeds. In the breeding sea- 

 son it has no scruples about eating its own eggs, 

 to say nothing of the "small fry." However, 

 as a female oyster produces on an average at 

 least 9,000,000 eggs in a season, one may excuse 

 this seeming lack of parental instinct. This in- 

 teresting animal has a good-sized stomach, 

 which is connected with the mouth by a short 

 gullet; two pairs of gills for breathing, an in- 



ne, a dark-green liver, a two-chambered 

 heart and an elementary nervous system, but 

 is minus ears, nose and eyes. It also lacks the 

 footlike appendage that many mollusks pos- 

 sess, for the very good reason that it has no 

 need of an organ of locomotion. 



How It Grows. Oyster eggs are yellowish in 

 color, and BO minute that a mass of them would 

 look like so much thick cream. They arc ejected 

 from the parent oyster in a sort of milky spray. 

 A newly hatched oyster is a cup-shaped object 

 about the size of the point of a needle; it is 

 able to swim about freely by means of fine, 



l.kc growths, or cilia. Soon the primitive 

 shell is formed, and the little animal sinks to 



bottom of the sea and attaches itself to a 

 solid object, to develop into a real oyster. In 

 a month a youns oyster is about the size of a 

 pea; at the end of a year it is as larre as a 

 silver quarter; and after that it prows about an 

 inch a year until it reaches full size at the end 

 of three or four yean. 



So many other animals prey upon oysters 

 that they would become extinct if such count- 

 less numbers of eggs were not produced. When 

 the swimming larvae reach the surface they are 

 gulped down by fish at the rate of several thou- 

 sands a second, and after they begin life as 

 fixed objects on the sea floor they are attacked 

 by starfish, drills, rays and other hungry marine 

 enemies. Among these is the boring snail, which 

 pierces the shell with its rasping tongue and 

 proceeds to draw out the soft parts at its lei- 

 sure. One scientist has figured that a newly- 

 hatched oyster has one chance in 1,145,000 to 

 attain adult size. 



The Oyster Industry. The popularity of the 

 oyster as a table food is responsible for an in- 

 dustry of gigantic proportions. The oyster beds 

 of the coast waters of Eastern United States, 

 especially those in Chesapeake Bay, are among 



From Public Beds 



Virginia 

 26QO 



South Carolina 

 IV76 



From Private Beds 



Cpnnectkut 

 3731 



Virginia 

 2385 



New York ? TK New Jersey 

 2352 ^^ HQ9 



Figures Represent Thousands of Bushels 



THE ANNUAL, CATCH 



The figures represent the average yield for a 

 period of flve years. 



the most productive in the world. In America, 

 oyster fishing is carried on from Maine to 

 Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico, in San Fran- 

 cisco Bay and in the coast waters of Oregon 

 and Washington. Baltimore is the chief mar- 

 ket for the industry, and the Chesapeake Bay 

 district is the most extensive single area pro- 

 ducing oysters. Maryland, Virginia, Conn- 

 cut, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, So ih 

 Carolina, Georgia and Rhode Island annually 

 produce over 1,000,000 bushels each; the total 

 h for the entire country has for many years 

 been over 30,000,000 bushels a year. v:i !;:<<! ap- 



