MARINE PRODUCTS. 63 



Massachusetts, and at one time were abundant in Long Island Sound. 

 Active dredging depleted the beds and now the supply is maintained 

 only by cultivation and restricting dredging operations. Some 

 oysters are canned on the coast of Virginia, the Carolinas, and Geor- 

 gia, but they are no longer canned north of Maryland. The oyster 

 occurs in the Gulf on the west coast of Florida and along the shore 

 to Texas. There is a large business in canning oysters in Mississippi 

 and Louisiana. A few oysters are found on the Pacific coast, but 

 not in sufficient quantity to warrant canning. The abundance of 

 oysters in Chesapeake Bay made canning operations most profitable 

 there, and the output acquired a reputation which still gives it some 

 preference in the market. Prior to 1900 probably 95 per cent of the 

 canned oysters were put up in Baltimore or in the immediate vicinity. 

 The southern or Gulf oyster, however, has been proved to be equally 

 good for canning purposes and the industry has rapidly assumed 

 large proportions in those localities. 



The oyster grows naturally on the hard reefs in from 15 to 180 

 feet of water, depending upon the temperature. In the Gulf they 

 grow in shallower water. They will also grow in the bayous and 

 flats by transplanting and furnishing shells or hard objects to which 

 the spawn may become attached. Formerly no regulations were 

 deemed necessary as to the places at which oysters might be taken, 

 but since the rivers have become polluted with city sewage it is 

 necessary to guard carefully against oysters from contaminated beds. 

 The different States regulate the time when the fishing may be done, 

 which is generally from the 1st of September until the 1st of May. 

 The oysters for canning are usually taken from the beds between the 

 1st of October and the 1st of April. 



Oysters were among the first products canned in this country. It 

 is recorded that some were put up in an experimental way in New 

 York in 1819, though they did not become a commercial proposition 

 until the work was developed by Thomas Kensett in Baltimore in 

 1844. In the beginning all the oysters were shucked raw, by hand. 

 In 1858 Louis McMurray, of Baltimore, found that by scalding the 

 oysters in boiling water the shells would partially open and the labor 

 of shucking could be lessened. Two years later the system of steam- 

 ing them instead of scalding was developed, and no material change 

 in method has taken place since that time. McMurray is said to 

 have had a most excellent reputation as an oyster packer. His 

 method was to save all the liquor and condensed steam from the 

 steam boxes, filter it, and use it in filling the cans. He used neither 

 salt nor water. There is probably no packer in the business at the 

 present time following this method. 



Oysters are obtained by dredging and by tonging, the former upon 

 the reefs and in the deeper water, and the latter in the shallow bayous 



