Implements and Their Uses 145 



centers, they are often placed in tin cans and hermeti- 

 cally sealed. These are packed in a wooden box in two 

 rows, leaving a space between for ice. Though the tin 

 can has gradually fallen into disuse during the last few 

 years, it is in some ways the best container yet devised 

 for fresh, shucked oysters. But the more usual method 

 in the North, as well as at Baltimore and Norfolk, now is 

 to use barrels, half-barrels, or pails of wood. Pieces of 

 ice are put in with the oysters, a practice that fortunately 

 is being abandoned and before the pure food laws went 

 into effect, it is possible a pinch of boric or salicylic acid, 

 also and a cover fitted tightly and securely over them. 

 Other containers, such as pint and quart bottles with 

 pasteboard stoppers, and double receptacles with a space 

 between for ice, are beginning to be used. 



Even without additional refrigeration, these raw oys- 

 ters will remain fresh for ten days or two weeks in the 

 winter. They are transported by special oyster trains or 

 by express, and all the central states, even west of the 

 Mississippi, receive them in good condition. Baltimore 

 controls a large part of the inland territory, New Haven 

 and other Long Island Sound cities naturally supply the 

 denser population of New England. Many raw oysters 

 from Chesapeake Bay are also sent North. Several fancy 

 brands of northern oysters in the shell, on the other 

 hand, find a large market in Baltimore, Washington, and 

 other southern cities. 



The packing industry has longbeen established at Mo- 

 bile, and is growing steadily and rapidly at New Orleans. 

 There is a great territory in the South to be supplied from 

 these centers, but they are also shipping oysters as far 

 north as Chicago, and as far west as the Rocky Moun- 

 tains. Without doubt New Orleans will in a few years 



