FOOD FROM THE MOLLUSCA AND EAHIATA. 423 



The " culls " sell from thirty to forty-five cents a hundi-ed, 

 when the "box" grade cost from sixty to ninety cents 

 per hundred. 



Those that are sold out of the shell are opened on the 

 boats at New York. A single firm on .the North Kiver 

 sometimes opens one hundred and fifty thousand counts 

 in a single day. Men who open oysters there are able 

 to earn about three dollars a day. 



Ernest IngersoU's census report on the oyster business 

 shows that the total wholesale value of the oysters 

 annually sold in Boston is 705,000 dollars ; the annual 

 value of the oysters produced in Narragansett Bay is 

 680,000 dollars ; the value of those sold in New Haven 

 Harbour is 480,000 dollars; in the East River and 

 Peconic Bay, 708,000 dollars ; on the south shore of Long 

 Island, 400,000 dollars; in New York Bay, excluding 

 New York city, 375,000 dollars; in New York city, 

 2,758,000 dollars; on the ocean shore of New Jersey, 

 370,000 dollars ; in Delaware Bay, 2,425,000 dollars ; in 

 Philadelphia 2,750,000 dollars ; and in Virginia nearly 

 2,000,000 dollars ; and about 125,000 dollars will cover 

 the value for the remainder of the Southern coast line, 

 not including the Gulf line, where the value slightly 

 exceeds 300,000 dollars. The total of these figures is 

 nearly 14,000,000 dollars, or £2,800,000. Some set the 

 value of the American oyster fishery at £5,000,000. 



Oysters salted are brought into Mexico from the 

 Pacific coast. Before they are eaten they are soaked in 

 water, or in oil, for a night, and they retain some of 

 their flavour, but naturally are nothing like fresh oysters. 



Large quantities of oysters are sent to San Francisco 

 by rail from New York, and are kept for a year in the 

 beds of the bay to fatten. The imports are about 12 

 million oysters annually. About 40 million oysters are 

 also obtained from local banks and deposited in parks in 

 the bay to fatten. Clams are also obtained in the bay. 



The waters of half of Prince Edward Island were once 

 stocked with natural beds. So lately as 1832 live 

 oysters were so plenty that legislation had to forbid their 



