2 
nutritious and wholesome food they are equal to either clams or 
oysters, and many persons regard them as superior in flavor. They 
rarely fail to please the taste of the lover of sea foods, and the 
experiment of having them presented on the menus of some of the 
prominent hotels and restaurants in Boston lias met with immediate 
success. Patrons who have tried them have asked for them again, 
and they have become recognized features at hotels whose chefs a 
few weeks before were ignorant of the fact that they could be readily 
obtained in the United States. 
Since they are abundant and easily taken, sea mussels are cheap. 
They are found in dense beds yet untouched, accessible to the mar¬ 
kets, and easily reached by tongs and dredges. They can be placed 
on the markets at a lower cost than can either oysters or clams, and a 
barrel of mussels contains more edible material than a barrel of 
oysters. The quantity of actual nutriment contained in the edible 
portions (the meat and liquov) of mussels is slightly greater than in 
oysters and clams, and the mussel therefore contains at least as 
much food, pound for pound, as is found in related shellfish in com¬ 
mon use. As the shells are thinner, a bushel of mussels contains con- 
siderably more foodstuff than an equal quantity of oysters. 
A peck of mussels in the shell will supply all of the meat required 
for a meal for 10 persons. 
Sea mussels are among the most easily digestible of foods, as has 
been demonstrated not only by scientific experiment, but by the 
experience of consumers. The human body is able to use practically 
all of the nutriment contained in the meats and liquor of mussels. 
Persons of weak digestion have found that they can eat mussels with 
impunity when meats cause distress. Being palatable, nutritious, 
digestible, wholesome, and cheap, mussels are food for rich and poor, 
the well and the sick. 
i 
IX SEASON ALL THE YEAR. 
From the standpoint of both dealer and consumer sea mussels 
possess the advantage of being in season when oysters are out of 
season. The American oyster, which is the best in the world, prob¬ 
ably will never be displaced from its present eminent position in the 
regard of the public, and now that its freedom from contamination 
is being assured through the activities of the United States and 
many State governments, its popularity should increase. But com¬ 
paratively few oysters are marketed from April to September, and 
this is the season at which mussels are at their best on the coast of 
the New England and Middle Atlantic States. Thus they constitute 
a supply of shellfish at a time when the oyster is unobtainable, and 
oyster dealers may handle them with profit during an otherwise slack 
season. 
