I IO 
bulletin of the bureau of FISHERIES. 
A comparison of the fuel values of the mussel and oyster based on the total weight 
of waste and edible portions shows that the value of the mussel as a food is three times 
greater than that of the oyster. The ratio between the fuel values of the edible portions 
of these two shellfish is more nearly equal, but the mussel in this case is superior to the 
oyster by 65 calories per pound. The fuel values of the mussel and long clam are 
about the same. Compared with lean beef we might say that 5 % pounds of mussels 
in the shell, or 2^4 pounds of meats and liquor in their natural proportion, are equal in 
food value to 1 pound of beef. 
As a food material, therefore, from the standpoint of chemical composition and 
nutritive value, the mussel is far superior to the oyster, is equal to the long clam, and 
has about one-third the value of lean beef. 
MUSSELS A CHEAP FOOD. 
Measured by the fourth standard, economy, we again find the mussel taking high 
rank among food materials. It is widely distributed, extremely abundant, and easily 
obtained. Mussels abound in the bays and estuaries of our Atlantic coast from North 
Carolina northward and on our Pacific coast from Alaska to San Francisco. They 
grow in great beds, often acres in extent, on the surface of mud or sand extending out 
from between tide marks to several fathoms of water. Plate xxiv, figure 1, is a 
view of an exposed mussel bed at Menemsha Pond, Marthas Vineyard, Mass. This 
bed is but two years old and represents hundreds of tons of valuable food. 
Mussels are also found growing in great abundance out in the deeper waters. On one 
occasion in Vineyard Sound, not far from Robinsons Hole, the steamer Fish Hawk 
dredged up a beam trawl full of them, a quantity approximating a ton or more. A 
resident of Pawtucket, R. I., writes that there are places in Narragansett Bay where a 
man could obtain 50 bushels a day for the whole season if he had a partner to receive 
and dispose of them. Under these conditions he considers 35 cents a bushel a reason- 
able price to ask. The total supply of New York City, which amounts to 75 barrels of 
mussels in the shell and 400 gallons of the pickled variety per day, is furnished chiefly 
from the bays bordering Long Island. The man who provides nearly this whole 
supply informed me that the quantity of mussels is far in excess of the demand. 
As has already been shown, the mussel breeds at an almost inconceivable rate 
and grows very rapidly. Even if the demand should grow to exceed the supply from 
the natural beds it would be an easy matter to meet the increase by means of cultiva- 
tion. The methods which may be utilized for this purpose are discussed in another 
chapter. 
The question of real economic importance to the consumer of food is the ratio 
between the cost of a given food and the amount of nutriment it supplies. Milner 
( I 9°3) groups food materials into three classes: (1) Cheap, those which furnish more 
than 1,900 calories energy for 10 cents at ordinary prices; (2) Medium, those which 
furnish 800 to 1,900 calories energy for 10 cents; and (3) Expensive, those furnishing 
less than 800 calories energy for 10 cents. A bushel of mussels weighs about 70 pounds. 
