Page Eighteen
THE STATE
August 11, 1934
WHAT KIND OF A NOISE ANNOYS AN OYSTER?
P
• BOB ABLY no
"I her food tlllll
comes from lb**
*ea i* as universally
liked a.» the oyster.
True il is (hut there
are some folks way
beck in the stale who
say they wouldn’t
eat one of the thing*
for love nor money,
hut if the truth wen-
known these folks
really don’t know
how good an oyster
honestly is.
However, tlien-
are enough people
left, ill the Old North
State who love the
luscious bivalve to
the extent that the
oyster industry has
been elevated to u
position of great importance in the
commercial fishery l-usiiies*. Each
year the annual catch, taken from
practically all the tidal areas of the
coastal section when- the water attains
the proper degree of salinity, or salti¬
ness, approaches tin-
$100,0(11»
mark in
total value. Some years the value of
the crop i* greater, ami some less, but
it will easily average a tenth of a mil¬
lion dollar* to the oystermen along
the coast.
While, as above stated, oysters are
a common sight in the marshes and
tidal cn*-ks all along the coast of
North Cnrolinn, most of the oysters
marketed in the stale are obtained
from Pamlico Sound and Coro Sound,
and from various inshore areas in
Carteret, Pamlico, and Hyde counties.
These oysters are marketed chiefly
through dealers located in tin- vicinity
of Beaufort. Mon-head City, New
Bern, Washington, and Bclhavcn. The
oysters an- usually sold to the trade
according to tho name of the locality
from which they are harvested. The
most iui|M>rtant of which are Gull
Bock. Bluff Shoal, Nouse River, Point
of Marsh, llnrhor Island. Newport
Biver, New Biver. Stump Sound, and
others. Trucks buy many of the
oysters at the numerous shucking, or
opening, plants along the coast and
carry them to cities all through tin-
state. Thus one may buy Stump
Sound oy-ters or New Biver oysters
By FRANK A. MONTGOMERY, JR.
STRANGE as it may seem, it's the common star fish that
onnoys an oyster most. Mr. Montgomery tells you some in¬
teresting things obout the oyster industry in the accompany¬
ing article.
- : -
or-
srifei ‘ *
i — — — * _
Small boon belonging to oyster tongers
surrounding a "buy" boat in the waters
of Boguc Sound. The larger boot pur¬
chases the cofches made by the tongers.
almost as fresh in Asheville or Win-
-ton-Salcm a» when they left the sen
coast.
I»m- to rapidly increasing consump¬
tion of oysters, which has hadlv de¬
pleted the supply on the natural U-ds
in North Carolina, the Stale Depart¬
ment of Conservation in cooperation
with the United States’ Biological
Laboratory at Beaufort has
1ч*сп
mak¬
ing an effort to rehabilitate existing
ln-ds and encourage new bode in the
sounds all along the coast by the trans¬
plantation of seed oysters. Already,
during the past year, according to Dr.
Herbert Prytherch, of the fisheries*
station in Beaufort, over 760,000
bushels of these seed oysters have been
planted in the various counties up and
down the east shore of the state. This
will undoubtedly prove of inestimable
value to the oyster industry of the
state, where most of the oysters are
obtained from the natural bed* instead
of the “farms” common in the more
northern sections of the Atlantic
( ’oast.
Oysters arc a natural health fo.nl,
and medical men have seen qualities
in it that arc- a boon
to sufferers fro in
anaemia. Beside*
that they are ex¬
tremely nutritious
whether served fried,
as oyster cocktail, in
fritters, or milk
«tew. Coupled with
its food value and
health attributes is
its marvelous flavor,
and this, perhaps
more than any other
single thing, has ac¬
counted for the pop¬
ularity of the oyster.
The Indians of
the “late in the days
long before the
whites ever came to
Roanoke Island,
were fond of oysters,
extensive pilgrim¬
ages being undertaken by whole tribes
from the interior to the seacoast each
year. After the savages arrived at
tho coast, there followed much feast¬
ing on roasted oysters. A* soon a*
every man, woman, and child in the
tribe was gorged to the popping point,
so historians tell us, great pots of
youpon ten would be made and drunk,
the Indians subsequently lying around
in a stupor a good many hours.
As a testimonial to the fondness of
the rod man for the oyster, one may
|*oint to the many shell mounds at
different points along the coast of
North Carolina. 1 have, myself, ex¬
amined several in the Capo bear sec¬
tion, and tho presence of broken |iot-
tery and an occasional arrow point
contributed to the authenticity of their
origin. I’p on the DnnmriKoottn
Biver. in Maine, there is one mound
of shells left by the savages estimate.!
to contain eight million cubic feet of
shells.
In connection with this fondness of
the Indians for the oyster, there is
told a little story that endeavors to
explain the manner in which the first
inhabitants acquired their taste for the
bivalve. It is said that an Indian
brave was walking along the shore at
low tide looking for fish .-aught in the
occasional pools of water left by the
receding tido. He came to one and
saw a big oyster on the bottom with
(Continued on
роде
frrnfyfwe)