[37] FISHEKIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 221 



ing pile of shells by a wooden shield. Men and women, white and black, 

 are employed, but in well-arranged houses the sexes are assigned dif- 

 ferent alleys, and in many the same distinction is observed with regard 

 to the races. The buildings are roughly put together and are neces- 

 sarily dirty, sloppy, and uncomfortable, usually being but imperfectly 

 heated by large stoves. The shucking troughs are supplied with oys- 

 ters from the lots received during the previous day and night, each 

 shucker informing the foreman when his trough is emptied. The same 

 men and barrows that carry the oysters from the vessels or piles to the 

 shuckers, remove the shells that collect on the floor. In shucking, the 

 workman takes an oyster from the heap in the trough, and holding it 

 in the palm of his left hand, the bills projecting and towards him, and 

 with the knife and hammer in the right hand, he lays the lips on the 

 beveled edge of the iron projecting from the block of wood, and with a 

 blow of the hammer breaks off the bills ; the knife is then entered, the 

 valves separated, and the oyster removed and thrown into one of the 

 buckets. In Ehode Island and some parts of New England the ham- 

 mer and block are not used, bat the oyster is " stabbed" ; that is, in- 

 stead of breaking the lips of the valves, the knife is entered at the side 

 and the abductor muscle cut. When his bucket is full the shucker 

 carries it to the end of the alley and pours its contents into a trough 

 leading through a hole in the partition dividing the shuckers from the 

 receivers. The oysters are thus run into a sheet-iron or zinc receptacle 

 (jailed the " skimmer," which is perforated with holes to allow the liquor 

 to run off, and are there cleaned of shell fragments and measured. 

 Each shucker has a number, which he gives as he empties his bucket ; 

 at the same time he receives a tally-check and his gallon is scored up 

 to his credit on a huge blackboard. At the end of the day the amount 

 of each score is entered in a book, and the employe's are paid at the 

 end of the week. Shuckers make from 75 cents to $1 per day in the 

 Maryland houses, and about 50 cents more in the New England estab- 

 lishments. The men usually make more than the women. 



From the "skimmer" the oysters are put into enormous tubs, and 

 from thence are taken, a few gallons at a time, to the "cullender," a 

 sheet iron or zinc basin, perforated with small holes, where they are 

 thoroughly washed. From the cullender they are transferred either to 

 small cans, holding a quart of oysters, or to barrels, kegs, or tubs; when 

 packed in tubs, kegs, or barrels, they go in bulk, with a large piece of 

 ice; when packed in the tin cans, the cans are arranged in two rows in- 

 side of a long box, a vacant space being left in the center, between the 

 rows, in which is placed a large block of ice. The cans are carefully 

 soldered up before packing, and together with the ice are laid in saw- 

 dust. Oysters packed in this way can, in cool weather, be kept a week 

 or more, and sent across the continent, or to the remote western towns. 



The steaming process is that by which the "cove" oysters are pre- 

 pared. The term " cove" is applied to oysters put up in cans, hermet- 



