The Oysters 



improve in flavour by being liberally supplied with fine corn meal. 

 This is not practicable; the natural food supply brings the oyster 

 to prime condition, and extra fatness is not demanded by the 

 American market. 



The best fattening grounds are often found near the mouths 

 of rivers, in brackish water. It is true that by reason of the 

 pollution of streams by sewage, oysters are contaminated, and 

 typhoid and cholera sometimes develop in persons eating these 

 oysters. "Oyster scares" are periodic outbreaks that for a time 

 check local demand. The laying down in clean water of oysters 

 from muddy beds greatly improves their appearance and flavour, 

 by the thorough washing it accomplishes. 



The Oyster's Enemies. — It is calculated that an infant oyster 

 has but one chance in one million one hundred and forty-five 

 thousand to grow up. Fish devour the larvae in great numbers. 

 Settled comfortably on the shell or stone that is to be its support 

 for life, and shielded to an increasing extent by its own shell, 

 the oyster may bid farewell to many fears that beset its free- 

 swimming infancy. But enemies are present in great variety 

 and numbers still. A freshet may cause deposits of mud that 

 smother them; the currents may shift the sand just enough to 

 bury them. Crabs many times devastate an oyster bed, as if 

 by concerted action, crushing all young shells up to a year old 

 with their powerful pincers. The starfish, ray and octopus do 

 great damage. Drills (Urosalpinx) and dog whelks (Nassa) are 

 enemies which bore the shells with their rasping tongues and 

 suck out the soft parts, leaving the tough remains for the scav- 

 enger crabs and whelks. The moon shell (Natica) and pear conch 

 (Fulgur), are charged with similar deeds, but they are not such 

 oyster specialists as the well-hated and hotly pursued drills. 



Fish consume young oysters until the shells are hard enough 

 to resist their horny jaws. The drumfish and sheepshead menace 

 the beds about Long Island. Menhaden and alewife are in this 

 same predatory class. 



One of the most insidious enemies is the boring sponge which 

 honeycombs the shells so that the oyster is exhausted with seal- 

 ing up punctures with new shell deposits. Often these shells 

 crumble. They form stations for the attachment of sponges and 

 hydroids, which smother the oyster, and rob it of food. 



The starfish begins its ravages upon oysters scarcely the 



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