There are also many other parts of America in which the yield of the oyster-beds is enormous. In the State of Maryland 6000 persons are said to be employed dredging, and nearly 11,000,000 bushels of oysters were taken in 1870-71.
In Baltimore as many as 10,000 persons are employed in tinning this bivalve. Comparing the plenteousness of the oyster in America with its great scarcity of late years in our country, and the consequent much lower price of the foreign bivalve, we should be prepared to learn that considerable supplies of oysters, both alive and preserved in tins, come to us from America. The bulk of those consumed in Britain are a small variety, and come from Maryland and Virginia.
In 1872, owing to the diminished yield of the English oyster-beds, an attempt was made to introduce the American oyster into British waters; and we believe the depôt for this purpose still exists at Cleesethorpes, at the mouth of the Humber, where operations in this branch of oyster culture are being carried on by the Conway Company. If, however, the opinion of an eminent pisciculturist be correct, viz. that the American oyster will not breed in our waters, we should conceive the experiment will be abandoned, since nothing will be gained by relaying them, that cannot be attained by simply importing them and sending them to the market, since it is asserted they are kept alive out of water for a month.
A few years back a Select Committee appointed by Parliament to inquire into the causes of the scarcity of oysters issued in 1876 a report in which, endorsing the opinion of
previous authorities on oyster culture, they attributed the diminished yield of our oyster-beds to continual over-dredging for them in open waters, without allowing sufficient ‘close time.’ The Committee found that, in France, where the stringent observances of the ‘close season’ was enforced, the supply of oysters had increased concurrently. The Committee, therefore, recommended the establishment ‘of a general close time,’ extending from May 1st to September 1st, subject to certain exceptions under the supervision of the Board of Trade; the levying of penalties for buying or selling oysters for consumption during the ‘close season’ being also recommended. The Committee further recommended that no oysters should be sold from the deep-sea fisheries under 21⁄2 or 3 inches in diameter. Commenting upon the above report, ‘Nature’ very sensibly remarks:—“What is really wanted for the protection of the oyster is the assurance that these animals shall not be sold before they have a chance of reproducing their kind. Since the introduction of the railway system, the demand for oysters in distant places has become so great and the price has risen so high, that oyster culturists are tempted to send immature animals to market, and it is this fact, more than any failure of spat, that is leading to the scarcity. There are not, in consequence of the unceasing demand and consequent high price, so many full-grown oysters left to spat as there ought to be; hence the scarcity. Any Act of Parliament that decrees two oysters to grow where only one grew before will be greedily welcomed both by oyster culturists and by the public, and we hope that the issue of the present Report will lead to some effective measures being taken for the preservation of this delicious creature ere it be too late.” Previous to 1846 the wholesale price of best English natives was £2 2s. a bushel; since then the price has risen rapidly to £4 4s. in 1865, in 1866 to £5, and in 1869 it had advanced to £8; that is, they had risen nearly 300 per cent. in 8 years, which is equivalent to an advance of from 1⁄2d. to 2d. each. At the present time they are, we believe, sold at from 3s. to 3s. 6d. a dozen by the retail dealer.
Oysters are nutritious and easy of digestion when fresh, but are apt to prove laxative to those unaccustomed to their use. It is generally believed that they are in season each month of the year the name of which contains the letter R. Whitstable in Kent, and Colchester and other places in Essex, are the great nurseries or feeding-grounds for supplying the metropolis, and, indeed, the whole of England, with the most esteemed variety (NATIVES) of this shell-fish. The shells (TESTÆ PREPARATÆ, T. OSTREARIÆ) were formerly used in medicine as an absorbent.
Of the various species of oysters, that which holds the foremost place in the estimation of the gourmet is the ‘English native,’ now,
alas! owing to the unwise rapacity of the collector, nearly dredged out of existence.
The native has a historic reputation too, since it appears it was eagerly sought after by the old Romans, and was a frequent dish at their tables. The enthusiasm of the celebrated Dr Kitchener for this particular oyster was very intense. He is very particular in directing its shell to be opened with the greatest care so that it may be eaten alive and “tickled to death by the teeth.”
The green oyster of Ostend is also prized by epicures; it acquires its colour from its food, which consists chiefly of green monads and confervaæ. Some of the American oysters are excellent in flavour, and are said to be without the copper taste occasionally to be met with in English oysters. They smack a little of the mussel.