How We are Fed Part 4

There are very extensive fisheries along the sh.o.r.es of the British Isles and on the western coast of Europe. Fishing is the chief industry in the towns along the coast of Norway. The air is full of the odor of fish, while drying fish, nets, and boats are everywhere in sight.

Although the supply of fish in the ocean is very great, it is diminishing, especially near the sh.o.r.e. Most countries now pay considerable attention to the raising of both fresh and salt water fishes, and they have pa.s.sed laws regulating fishing. Eggs are hatched in great _hatcheries_, from which the young fish are taken where they are most needed.

The great ocean is free to all to sail over or fish in at will. There is a narrow strip along the sh.o.r.e three miles wide, which belongs to the country which it borders. The men of other countries are not allowed to fish there.

The fisherman is a brave and st.u.r.dy man. His life is full of danger. He battles constantly with the winds and the waves. Fogs may hide the sharp rocks which seem to wait for a chance to destroy his little vessel.

Sometimes icebergs or great ocean steamers sink his boat and he is never seen again.

When storms are raging and night has settled over sea and land, and angry waves are dashing themselves into foam against the sh.o.r.e, the mothers, wives, and children look anxiously from their cottage windows toward the sea, and pray that their loved ones may return to them in safety.

OYSTER FARMING

It sounds strange to speak of farming in the ocean, but there are many and large oyster farms all along our coast. Some of these farms are covered by water all of the time and some are uncovered when the tide is low. Oyster farms are far more profitable than are those upon which corn and wheat are raised.

This is a new industry in our country because civilized people have not lived here very long, but it is a very old one in some parts of the world. As long ago as the seventh century a Roman knight raised oysters for the market, and it is said that the business made him very wealthy.

You will understand better about the cultivation of oysters, if I tell you first how they live and grow in their natural homes.

Except during the first few days of their lives, oysters are prisoners.

They cannot move about freely from place to place as fishes and most animals can, but they are attached to rocks, to the sh.e.l.ls of their dead relatives, and to other objects. How, then, do you suppose they get their food? They grow in immense numbers, and they crowd one another more than people do in the tenement houses in our great cities. In fact most of them are soon crowded out, and they die, leaving room for the rest to grow upon their empty homes. In this way the oyster beds spread out.

These oyster beds are not found in very deep water, but rather along the sh.o.r.e, generally near the mouth of some river. As I have told you, they often live where they are uncovered when the tide goes out. You can see from this that it is not very difficult to gather oysters, so that, partly on this account, man has used them for food for ages.

When the Pilgrim Fathers landed on the sh.o.r.es of New England, they found that the Indians used oysters very commonly. All along the coast were great heaps of the sh.e.l.ls. At the very first Thanksgiving dinner given in America, oysters were served.

Oysters used to be so plentiful on these natural beds that they were very cheap. In some places where the winter weather was cold enough to freeze the water along the sh.o.r.e, people cut holes in the ice and gathered them by means of long-handled rakes.

In a single year an oyster will produce more than a million young ones.

Just think of it! If all of this family grew up, they would fill a room fourteen feet in each dimension.

These young oysters are _very_ small. They are called "spat." Most of them are drifted away by waves and currents, or devoured by larger sea animals. The few that escape soon attach themselves to some object, so getting a chance to begin the battle of life.

If oysters are caught at all times of the year it does not give them a chance to produce their young, and this, as well as catching the young ones themselves, has destroyed many of the natural beds. In order to keep up the supply of this food men commenced oyster farming. You see how our daily needs and desires lead to the establishment of great industries.

The oyster farmer prepares his farm in various ways. He places clean oyster sh.e.l.ls, stones, trays, bundles of sticks, and other things on the bottom, so that the oysters may find something to which to attach themselves. Then he places the young oysters or "spat" on these objects.

When trays are used, several are placed one upon another and bound together by means of a chain. These trays are taken up from time to time in order to gather the oysters that are ready for market.

Stones are sometimes piled on the bottom and the "spat" are placed in the crevices between them. Often stakes are planted in a somewhat circular form. Cords are attached to the stakes, to which bundles of sticks are fastened in such a way as to keep them a little above the bottom. Young oysters attach themselves to these sticks, which may be drawn up when the proper time comes.

Sh.e.l.ls are used more commonly than other things. They are taken from the restaurants and hotels to the farms in boat loads, to be scattered over the bottom.

The young oysters grow at very different rates. In two years they may grow to be six inches in length, or it may take several years to reach that size. They grow more rapidly on the artificial beds, and are better in quality also. The starfish is one of the greatest enemies of the oyster, large numbers of which it destroys every year.

During the fishing season the oyster men go to the beds in their boats and scoop the oysters up from the bottom. This is called dredging. The scoops with their loads of oysters are drawn to the deck of the boat by machinery. Sometimes the oysters are gathered by means of long tongs.

As the oysters are usually in cl.u.s.ters, these have to be broken up. For this purpose a sort of a hammer known as a _culling iron_ is used. The oysters are broken apart and sorted. Sometimes the oyster man makes three grades and sometimes four.

Oysters are not the only things drawn up in the dredge. Starfish, lobsters, and various kinds of fishes are gathered in. The starfish are killed and the rest thrown back.

The oysters are heaped up in great piles on the deck of the boat. Sacks and barrels are filled with them, and many car loads are shipped daily from the cities near the fishing grounds. Chesapeake Bay is the center of the oyster industry in our country. Find it. There are oyster beds, however, all along both the Atlantic and the Pacific coasts.

Great quant.i.ties of oysters are canned near where they are caught.

Getting them out of their sh.e.l.ls is not an easy matter. For this purpose a knife is used. This work is called in the South "shucking oysters."

Canning oysters is an important industry in the city of Baltimore. Have you ever seen cans of oysters that came from there?

A RICE FIELD

When you do not feel quite satisfied with your breakfast, dinner, or supper, and think that there should be a greater variety of food on the table, just come with me and we will visit some of the boys and girls of far-away China. What do you suppose _their_ chief article of food is?

Rice. Rice in the morning, rice at noon, and rice at night. Rice from the beginning to the end of the year. In the poorer families a bit of dried fish and some vegetables are usually eaten with it. Those who can afford such things have bits of preserved ginger, mushrooms, and barley cakes with the rice. Of course the rich people have other things to eat, but most of the people of China are poor.

In the fertile portions of China the people live very close together.

Gardens take the place of farms. Workmen often receive no more than ten cents a day. On this account they cannot afford the variety of food that we have, but must be content with whatever is cheap and nourishing for their labor. If the rice crop were to fail, the Chinese would suffer. You will see how important this food is to them, when I tell you that they are forbidden by law to sell rice to other countries.

Perhaps you are wondering where the rice that we use in this country comes from. Rice is grown in great quant.i.ties in j.a.pan, Corea, Indo-China, Ceylon, India, the Philippines, the Hawaiian Islands, and in our Gulf states.

Rice is the chief food of one half the people of the world. Although we raise large quant.i.ties, we produce only about one half of what we use.

It is a kind of grain which will not thrive on the fertile Western prairies where corn, oats, and wheat grow. It needs a warm climate and a great deal of water. For this reason the rice fields are found on the marshy lands near the coast, and by the banks of rivers, where they can be easily flooded. Some rice is raised on the uplands, but not so successfully as on the lowlands.

Ca.n.a.ls are dug from the streams through the farms, and from these smaller ditches branch off so as to reach all parts. They are so arranged that the farmer can turn the water on or off whenever he wishes. On some of the farms, wells furnish the water to the ca.n.a.ls.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 22.--A Rice Field.--Observe the Ca.n.a.l.]

In the Gulf states the fields are plowed in the winter, and the rice is sown between the first of April and the middle of May. Sometimes the seed is sown broadcast, as wheat is, and sometimes it is planted in regular drills or trenches about twelve inches apart.

The j.a.panese sow the seed in gardens, and when the plants are eight or ten inches high, they are pulled up and transplanted to the fields. The men work right in the water, for the fields are flooded at the time.

In our country the farmer floods the field as soon as the seeds are planted, allowing the water to remain five or six days. When the young blade of rice is a few inches high, the field is again flooded. After the second leaf appears on the stalk, the water is turned on and left for twenty or thirty days. After the land dries the crop is hoed. The fields are irrigated from time to time, until about eight days before the harvest, which generally occurs in August.

When full grown, the stalks are from one to six feet in height, with long, slender leaves. The kernels grow much as those of wheat and oats do.

On account of the fields being so wet, rice, in most countries, is cut by hand. In China and j.a.pan small curved sickles are used, and the grain is bound up in very small bundles. In Louisiana and some other parts of the South, regular harvesters are used. They have very broad wheels. Why?

After the grain has been bound into bundles, these are set up in double rows to dry. This is called _shocking_ the rice. The grain is then put through a thrashing machine, to separate it from the straw.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 23.--Harvesting Rice.]

Rice kernels are covered by a husk. Before the husk is removed the grain is often called _paddy rice_. Removing the hulls or husks is called _hulling_. The hulling machine is a long tube into one end of which the rice is poured. Within the tube are ribs which revolve rapidly. As the kernels pa.s.s between these the hulls are taken off.

If you were pa.s.sing through a Chinese village, you might hear sounds like those produced when a man pounds with a mallet on a great piece of timber. On searching for the sounds, you would find that they came from the rice mill. The mill consists of a portion of a log hollowed out and placed upright. In the hollow a quant.i.ty of rice is held. A piece of timber, fastened to a pivot, extends in a horizontal position with one end over the mill. To this end another timber is fastened in an upright position. A Chinaman gets on to the end of the long timber which is farthest from the mill. This raises the end with the upright. He then jumps off and the upright falls, striking upon the rice. In this way the hulls are worn off.

After hulling, the grain is carefully screened, in order to remove the hulls, the broken and very small kernels, and the _rice flour_. This latter makes good cattle food.