Santander, February 19th-22nd 2008 - Aranzadi

The U.S. Freshwater Shell Button Industry
305
The techniques used to harvest mussels from
their beds were adopted from the musseling
industry of Europe and varied in their efficiency
and damage to the beds. Most common were
hand collection, raking, brailing, and the use of
dredges. Brailing and hand collecting began in the
late 1880s. Brailing refers to the dragging of multitons
in 6 months in 1912. A 50 ton pile was recorded
in the Pekin area. Havanna had a 30 ton pile
in 1912, and “hundreds of tons” were shipped from
the Bath area that year. Four thousand tons were
harvested in the beds from Meredosia to Naples in
1909, while in 1912, 850 tons were gleaned. From
the Valley City area came 200 tons in 1910 and 93
tons in 1912. Bedford had 28 tons in 1912, Pearl
had 168 tons, and 30 tons were sold just north of
Kampsville in 1912. Buyers bought 1000 tons in
1908 from Hardin, but only 5 tons in 1912, 122 tons
at Grafton; 600 tons in 1911 and at least another
600 tons in 1912 from Gatlin (Danglade 1914).
While I have been presenting the hauls in individual
years, it is important to realize that many
small and large rivers sustained continuous harvesting
for more than two decades. The harvest
records are not easy to find. For Iowa rivers I can
say that, for instance, the Skunk River was exploited
from at least 1920 to 1936, the Des Moines
River from 1920 until 1941, and the Cedar River
from 1920 to 1941. The yields from the each river
are contained in Table 1.
The variation in yields had little to do with the
size of the molluscan population. Instead, it was
heavily determined by the factory interest in this
river as a source of shells expressed in the presence
of a mussel buyer on the river. Prior to 1920
the principal button shell was the ebony. As the
ebonies were depleted below the numbers necessary
for a sheller’s income, shellers and buyers
moved to other rivers. By 1920 and for the next 30
years the species mix viewed as acceptable for
button cutting changed nearly yearly renewing
factory interest in “old” river sources. The price the
buyers offered per ton was also significant in the
number of musselers willing to work. Some musselers
harvested mussels even when no buyer
was present and either left them in piles for future
sale or transported them to a buyer on another
river. So the variation in harvest yield is due to the
presence of buyers, the price being offered, the
number of individuals of a targeted species, the
number of musselers, and the technique employed.
There were far more species and individuals
in these rivers than were of interest to the commercially
motivated individual.
3. HARVESTING TECHNIQUES
Year Mississippi Cedar Iowa DesMoines Wapsipinicon Skunk
1920 1,866,580 696,257 8,600 145,100 67,210 31,430
1921 1,430,894 89,500 15,660 149,005 157,210 6,000
1922 1,200,355 70,150 32,940 466,400 83,705 27,540
1923 1,424,933 9,410 36,369 553,786 155,641 43,297
1924 1,165,667 9,100 193,390 29,340
1925 1,144,687 100,366 26,000 231,271 100,040 57,149
1926 2,058,626 1,225,456 228,633 1,205,692 24,252
1927 888,982 663,848 205,663 322,603 14,490
1928 2,422,897 669,128 64,665 236,384 136,861
1929 1,020,484 NR 79,705 172,015 24,860
1930 1,482,679 76,281 81,181 43,293 41,362 7,700
1931 858,334 386,947 10,130 856,906 61,173 17,500
1932 299,181 87,277 91,652 1,890 2,010
1933 NR NR NR NR NR NR
1934 435,269 186,227 4,150 87,257 2,830 7,240
1935 324,344 130,296 20,917 46,316 7,385 12,704
1936 128,499 24,240 2,000 7,999 300
1937 192,438 94,117 1,468 390,062
1938 266,449 8,310 1,906 226,118
1939 148,665 7,590 7,298 7,800
1940 296,735 6,300 180 21,183
1941 225,960 6,600 39,830
1942 365,852
NR=no record
Table 1. Mussel Poundage Taken from Iowa’s Rivers 1920-1942 (from Claassen 1994).
MUNIBE Suplemento - Gehigarria 31, 2010
S.C. Aranzadi. Z.E. Donostia/San Sebastián