THE MUSSEL FISHERY AND PEARL-BUTTON INDUSTRY. 
297 
The ihsUernien liave crude, oblong tanks, located at some convenient place on 
shore, made of sheet iron, capable of holding water. A lire is built under the tanks, 
and the mns.sels are boiled 10 or 15 minutes in order to kill them and i>ermit the 
extraction of the lleshy part. Under the inhnence of the heat the shells 0 ]»en, and 
the meats either fall out or are readily ])icked out by hand. After being thus pre- 
jiared, the shells are loaded in sacks and sent by steamer to the button factory, or 
they may be taken to market in the fisherman’s boat, ftonudimes large scows are- 
loaded with shells at a camp and towed to the factory town by a tug. Shells are also 
sold on the shore to buyers rei)resenting the local button makers oi’ factories in other 
States. 
A view is i»resented showing a part of a ‘‘boiling-ont ” shed, at Leclaire, Iowa, 
where many of the tishermen disposed of their catch in the winter of 1898-911. The 
shed, which is 40 feet scjnare, has three furnaces, on whi(‘,h are huge boiling pans, each 
holding liO bushels of mussels. The mussels are boiled for about 15 minutes and then 
thrown out on tables, when the meat easily comes from the shells as they are broken 
or ])nlled apart and thrown into a hea]). When photographed, this shed contained 
200 tons of cleaned shells, while outside were 3.50 tons in heaps. 
The lishermen make no use of the “meats” removed from the shells in cooking. 
In some places the meats are eagerly sought by fanners who go to the fishing shores, 
collect this waste product without cost, and feed it to hogs and poultry. It seems 
probable that the tishermen might add materially to the proceeds of their hshing by 
hnding a market for this waste. The quantity is, in the aggregate, large, amounting 
in the first half of 18!)8 to fully .500 tons. From a ton of niggerhead mussels as taken 
from the water over 300 pounds of meats may be obtained. The food value of the 
mussels is luactieally nil, and oidy limited (prantities are used for bait in line fishing. 
It is possible, however, that a market for tin meats, in a salted condition, may be 
found in the Atlantic coast States, where salt clams are exten.sively employed in the 
line fisheries for cod, haddock, hake, and other ocean fishes. Itecently, considerable 
(|uantities of fresh-water mussels, taken from ponds in southern Massachusetts, have 
been salted and .sold to cod fishermen at a good i)rice (-ft or .f5 jier barrel of 2(»0 jmunds). 
Even at .|3 per barrel, the Mississippi River lishermen coidd well afford to send their 
waste mussel-meats by freight to the coast. It is not known just what effect cooking- 
lias on the quality of the meats, but it is thought that this i»rocess does not seriously 
impair their value as bait. 
THE FISHING SEASON. 
In the early days of the industry, fishing was carried on from about August to 
December, but of late it has been conducted throughout the year, even after the river 
is frozen. The principal fishing, however, is still clone in late summer and fall, when 
the river is lowest. On one bed, near Muscatine, 50 persons were at times engaged in 
ice fishing in the winter of 1897-98, and on other large beds as many as 200 persons 
have been employed at one time. Ice fishing is of eonqiaratively recent origin, having- 
been first cai-ried on only during the winter of 1896-97. The ipiality of the shells is 
better in cold weather for the iiurpose of the button -maker. The mussels are then 
less brittle, while warm weather, with jn-olouged exposure in boats, makes them brittle. 
The (piestion of a close season for the mussel fishery, in order to afford the mussels 
a respite from incessant hunting, especially during their spawidng time, is now being 
agitated and is hereinafter di8cus.sed. 
