VIRGINIA: OYSTER INDUSTRY. 



467 



having been only 3,000 gallons of steamed oysters packed during the entire season. Shipments are 

 made in bulk, in barrels; and although, as previously stated, the largest part of the trade is with 

 New York and Boston, there are considerable shipments to all points of the North and West. 

 Although Baltimore is pre-eminently the great packing center of the bay, it is nevertheless 

 true that, considering the amount of capital invested in the business, Norfolk handles proportion- 

 ately a much larger trade than the former city. The number of shuckcrs employed and their 

 wages are in about the same proportion in the two cities. In Norfolk the buildings are generally 

 very plain, often mere frame structures, while in Baltimore many of the packing houses are among 

 the finest buildings devoted to trade in the city. The packing houses of Norfolk are not, as a 

 general thing, used during summer for fruit-packing, as is the case in Baltimore. The number of 

 oysters packed at Norfolk during the season of 1879-'80 was much larger than the combined totals 

 of all packing points in Maryland, excluding Baltimore. The exact figures are as follows: 



Outside of Norfolk the packing of raw oysters in Virginia is very light. At several places 

 a little business is done, but too small to be noted separately, since where there is only one packer 

 in a town it would divulge his individual business to publish statistics of that town. At Hampton 

 and at two places on the Rappahannock River quite an extensive trade in steamed or cove oysters 

 is conducted. The word cove, as applied to oysters, has two entirely distinct meanings. When 

 used by tougers it refers to large oysters caught in the small coves tributary to all creeks and 

 rivers, while with packers and others it means oysters which have been steamed and hermetically 

 sealed. 



The following table shows the packing trade of Virginia for the season of 1879-'80: 



