THE OYSTELt INDUSTRY. 559 



and the seaports north of Boston. Everywhere except iii New Hampshire and Maine the whole- 

 sale dealers are also the planters, and do not sell many oysters beyond what they have raised 

 themselves. At certain points, as for example, Monument River, Mass., the oysters are so fine 

 and large, and the locality comparatively so small, that they are marketed almost wholly in the 

 shell and go to supply the " bench " trade of Boston, i. e., to be sold in restaurants and hotels for 

 eating "on the half-shell." Fishing through the ice with tongs is habitual all winter in that 

 district, yet the oystermen do not complain of it as especially cold or unpleasant work. In order 

 to keep the oysters from freezing, they dip in water the bag which they intend to put them in, 

 and hold it upright until it freezes stiff'. It thus stands conveniently open like a barrel, and no 

 wind can blow through its sides to the detriment ot the contents. 



In winter large quantities of oysters from the Chesapeake are imported by the vessel load, as 

 I have explained, for immediate consumption; these are used for opening and cooking, the higher 

 grade, fresher "native" oysters from New England waters being reserved for the "shell" trade. 

 Formerly enormous quantities of southern oysters were bedded at Boston, but now the encroach 

 ments of the building and filling in along the water front overrun the old limits of the bedding 

 grounds, and even the ancient natural beds. Where the Boston and Maine's car house now 

 stands a leading dealer not many years ago laid down 42,000 bushels in a single season. It was 

 known as White Island at that time. The South Boston flats are being graded up into streets, 

 and the Charles, Mystic, and Maiden Rivers, Bird Island, and other places were long ago aban- 

 doned because the wharves or the sewerage of the city has destroyed their usefulness to the 

 oysterman. Instead of bedding in his own harbor, therefore, the Boston dealer now rents ground 

 in Buzzard's or Narragansett Bays, and lays down there the Virginia oysters he proposes to use 

 for his summer and autumn trade, or else he has abandoned the practice altogether. 



8. THE MARKETING OF OYSTERS "OPENED." 



The opening of oysters and shipment of their flesh in water-tight receptacles to customers at 

 a distance is a practice which began at Fair Haven (New Haven), Conn., half a century ago. In 

 the early days the opening was done by the townspeople at their homes, and dealers packed in 

 little wooden kegs, or in square tin cans for shipment to distant points under the protection of ice. 



Nowadays this work is done wholly in the dealer's factory on the wharf where his schooners 

 or steamers unload. As soon as the oysters are opened they are placed in a flat pan with a perfo 

 rated bottom, called a skimmer, where they are drained of their accompanying liquor. From time 

 to time a quantity are dipped out and put into a large colander, placed over a tall cask. Here a 

 stream of water is turned upon them, and they are stirred about until washed clean, after which 

 they are put into wooden tubs for shipment, or tin cans for local traffic. The tubs are all labeled 

 with the name of the owner, and are returned by the customer. Their covers fit with exactness, 

 and lock with rivet and seal in such a way that they cannot be opened on the road without certain 

 discovery. The "shuckers" are mainly girls, who make fair wages. 



The expressage of oysters from Fair Haven to the interior of New England is so large that 

 the afternoon trains have one car, and sometimes two, devoted exclusively to the carriage of these 

 goods. Large shipments were formerly made in wagons to Albany and thence to the large towns 

 in central New York. Now these oysters go by rail much farther westward, even to Chicago, 

 Cincinnati, and San Francisco. 



At Providence, also, oysters are opened in enormous quantities every winter, the dealers 

 here, as at New Haven, disposing in this way of nearly the whole of their crop and of all the winter 

 receipts by vessel from the Chesapeake. New Haven's trade extends through western New Eng- 



