THE OYSTER INDUSTRY. v 547 



within their shells, and also puff ont their form* to an appearance ot fatness very pleasing to the 

 epicure. 



Frequently, however, an elaboration of the platform is constructed, which is worthy of special 

 note. The bank is dug into and piles are driven, until a floor can be laid at a proper level below 

 high-water mark. Over this a tight shed is built, sometimes 75 feet long by 25 feet wide, and of 

 considerable height. On one side of this shed a canal is dug, into which a boat may run, and its 

 cargo is easily shoveled through large openings in the side of the shed onto the floor within. On 

 the opposite side of the shed, both within and without, rim floors or stages above the reach of high 

 water, where the oysters can be piled after freshening, packed in barrels and loaded on boats or 

 drays for shipment. When the tide goes down it leaves the oysters upon the platform within the 

 shed nearly bare, a depth of 8 or 10 inches of water being retained by a footboard at the seaward 

 end of the shed. An arrangement of sluices now admits the fresh water, and the freshening 

 begins. Over the space devoted to the platform or vat, at a sufficient height to let a man stand 

 underneath to shovel up the oysters for packing, in which work he uses a duug-fork, is a broad 

 shelf or garret, where barrels, baskets, boat-gear, and other small property can be safely stowed, 

 since the whole shed, platform, oysters, and all, can be locked up. I have given an illustration of 

 one of these houses at Smith's Lauding. 



The object of this "drinking" is to allow the oyster to become cleansed and freshened in 

 taste. Finding themselves again in the water after their temporary absence, the oysters all open 

 and "spit out" impurities clinging to the edges of the mantle and gills, and they do this at once, 

 so that usually a single tide is a long enough time to leave them in the fresh water. Moreover, 

 imbibing the fresh water causes them to change in color somewhat, making the flesh a purer white; 

 and it bloats them into an appearance of extreme fatness, which is very appetizing. Most persons 

 believe this to be a true increase of substance and weight, but it is no more than a puffing up. 



The main crop has been gathered by the time Christmas is near, but many scattered oysters 

 yet remain, that have escaped both tongs and dredges. In some districts the grounds are then 

 given up to the laborers who have been employed during the summer and fall, and under a new 

 impulse these men go over the grounds again with tongs and dredge. They work on shares 

 usually, returning to the owner of the beds one-half of the results, which makes a really handsome 

 thing for the gleaners, whose work, in this way, lasts from two to three weeks, making three or 

 four days a week, each man often clearing as his portion from $4 to $5 a day. At any rate, such 

 generally is the practice, with its results, at Keyport, N. J., " where for many years the principle 

 of the good old biblical rule of not forgetting the gleaners is almost religiously observed in the 

 last gathering of this harvest of the sea." 



METHODS OF SELLING. The disposal of their crops by the producers is according to various 

 methods, depending largely upon the utility the oysters are to serve. If as seed, the buyers come 

 after them in sloops, and are loaded from the boats of the oystermen. If to go into the city 

 markets, buyers may come after them, or the owners may take them to the city. 



In New Orleans some peculiar customs have grown up. To the Old and New Basins (chiefly 

 the former), in the rear of the city, reached by canals from Lake Pontchartrain, come the boats 

 from the eastward, bringing "lake" and "reef" oysters, generally of inferior quality, and intended 

 to be sold to the canning establishments, or to be opened for cooking purposes. The price of the 

 oysters frequently measured out in quarter-barrel boxes similar to those in use in Mobile 

 depends upon the state of the market as governed by the supplies received from the west, and 

 often goes down to 50 or 60 cents a barrel, at which price there is no profit, and the oystermen 

 stop running until a rise occurs. At the levee opposite, or just below the famous old French 



