Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 236, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 October 1912 — Real Home of the Soft Shells [ARTICLE]

Real Home of the Soft Shells

There may be persons who have never heard of Crisfield and whd do not know that it is the greatest market in the world for soft-shell crabs. Some hotels in New York get their supplies of the delicious crustaceans direct from there and they have been shipped as far as Seattle. Crisfield is in Maryland, down on the lower part of the eastern shore. It is not a big place, but they do send out good things to eat from there—not only the soft shell crab, but the diamond-back terrapin, the Tangier oyster, which the gourmets of Baltimore think is to be classed among the most delicious of the species, and white shad, to which those same gourmets hold that no shad is equal And so oh. With which introduction, enter Im R. Carson.

Mr. Carson was at the Imperial recently, says the New York Sun. He lives in Crisfield, is in business there and has made a study of the crab' scientifically and commercially. "Crisfield,” said Mr. Carson, "produces 90 per cent of all the soft crabs consumed in this country. They are caught within a radius of ten miles of the town. The old part of Crisfield was built on oyster shells, but of recent years the town has expanded. It was only about twelve years ago that the discovery that the soft-shell crab could be popularized started a boom and the values of property in. the last six years have trebled. Evolution of Soft-Shell Crab. "In the waters about Deal's, Tangier and Smith’s Islands the soft crabs are, caught in two ways. One Is employed by the ‘scrapers,’ who drag an instrument like an oyster dredge in the water six to twelve feet deep, from a bateau or canoe. The other method Is employed by the ‘netters,’ who stand in the bow of a skiff, pushing the boat slowly along in shallow wa- j ter and making a swoop with a dlpnet when they see a crab on the bottom. Ninety per cent of the crabs thus caught are hard-shelled, and they are put into floats and kept until they shed their shells. ( “The first stage of a crab in progressing from harfl to soft is what la termed locally a ‘snot’ The change from a snot to a 'softer' requires from four hours to four days, depending on the condition of the crab. The snot becomes a peeler, when he is much prized for bait, and a new shell has completely formed under the hard coat, and then a buster when the hard shell has started to come loose at the back. Then in 8 short time emerges the softer, ready for the market and, the table. < From Crustacean to Hardshell. The average life of a crab is three years. , The secretary of the Virginia state boaijd of fisheries, who has studied crabs many years, says that a single female in the spring of the year will produce 1,250,000 eggs. Out of ' all those only about 200 crabs mature. The remainder are consumed by other fish and by crabs. After laying her eggs the female crab is eaten by others of her species. "The season opens in our waters on May 1 and lasts until Oct 1, when the crabs go out into very deep water. In the early spring, to be exact on March 1, the soft crab season opens at Morehead City, N. C., where many Crisfield packers go and operate until the season begins at home. Shipped Packed In Seaweed. “If when a crab is unpacked in New York, it is what is called a 'paper shell,’ which means that the shell has < begun to harden; that means that if* the crab was properly packed it was that hard when it started. Packed in sea ores (seaweed), they will keep soft until they die. I shipped crabs last summer to a friend in Houston, Tex., a seventy-two hour journey. We do not ship in refrigerated cars, but in refrigerating boxes. "Some persons do not know how to tell when a crab is fit to eat. Here is an infallible method of telling. The fact that a crab is dead when it is unpacked does not mean that it Is necessarily spoiled. The way to tell is to pull out one of the back fins. If ft resists, the crab should be in good condition. If the crab should be thrown away the fin will, come out easily and will be mushy on the end. Brown spots on the top of shells of crabs do not mean anything Is wrong, because you will frequently find them on live crabs. It makes no difference how long a crab has been dead if the back fin pulls out hard. Prices of Crabs Fluctuate Greatly. “About 75 per cent of the population of Crisfield is engaged in the oyster and fish trade. But we cannot count upon anything like a regular production. Crabs may be selling one day at >1 a dozen and in three days’ time may drop to 80 cents because of overproduction. Then a storm may ent off the supply and the price go soaring again. "Hard crabs are picked into three grades of meat Claw meat, for use on free lunch counters; white, for devil crabs and crab cakes, and lump, for newburgs and fancy dishes. I have heard that Japanese crab meat, canned, comes into this country free of duty, but have not been able to verify it. - -■ “Diamond back terrapin are scares. When you think that in slavery times the Maryland legislature passed an act prohibiting planters from feeding them to their slaves more than three times a week, ft seems queer to tint them bringing >75 < decan naw.” »