The Oysters 



new oyster beds, profitable to the owner for extending his acre- 

 age, or in sales as "seed" to other oyster growers. 



Though two oysters may be alike in size and quality, the one 

 with a smooth, regular shell brings a higher price in the market 

 than the rough, irregular one, which is ugly and hard to open. 

 So growers give considerable attention to breaking up the clumps 

 upon which the spat is attached, thus giving the individual more 

 room, and in the end making a crop superior in form, size 

 and flavour. 



The taking of oysters for market thins the bed, and improves 

 the conditions under which the young oysters are living. With 

 clutch of scallops and jingles, growth of the new shells is a force 

 that helps to break apart the substance to which they are attached. 

 Distorted shells improve in shape when the cause of their dis- 

 tortion is removed. 



Flavour and Fat. — Transplanting has a marked effect upon 

 the rate of growth and upon the flavour of an oyster. These 

 considerations are vital. There is a year's difference in the time 

 of bringing an oyster to market on the two sides of Long Island. 

 As many as possible are taken to Great South Bay from the Sound 

 for this final spurt. Two-year-old stock averaging one and 

 three-eighth inches long brought from the Connecticut shore in 

 May attain three inches by November. Cleaner water and more 

 room make better-shaped shells, fatter and better-flavoured 

 oysters — hence a higher market price. "Blue Point" oysters 

 are all grown or finished in Great South Bay, though Blue Point 

 is but one of many villages that supply the New York market 

 with this popular brand. 



The famous French "green oysters" of Marennes are care- 

 fully fattened in ponds containing a green diatom whose pigment 

 colours the gill fringes to the shade required by an exacting 

 public, and gives the oyster their distinctive flavour. English 

 people and Americans frankly dislike green oysters. 



The British oyster market is supplied from beds about the 

 mouth of the Thames and off the coasts of Kent and Essex. 

 The Englishman prefers a five-inch "native," five years old. 

 In New York oysters are marketed at from three years old upward. 



Oysters are fattened on bran and oatmeal in cellar tanks 

 for the Billingsgate market in London. "The flavour is all but 

 lost in the fat." Experiments prove our oysters to fatten and 



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