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Plump, nutritious and there for the taking—until the oystermen of
Chesapeake Bay got greedy. A century ago, William Brooks, university professor
and oyster commissioner, warned of the coming calamity if the dredgers, tongmen,
shuckers, packers, brokers and dealers didn’t lay off nature’s larder and start
farming oysters to meet the huge demand. His gem of a book, The Oyster (Johns
Hopkins University Press, £12.50/$14.95, ISBN 0 8018 5391 5), now
reissued, sounded a timely warning. Few listened.