1910

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I WILL stake my professional reputation

on the statement that I can produce millions of dollars worth of (symmetrically perfect and rarely valuable pearls at the bottom of the Potomac River near Washington.” Such is the remarkable claim made by Dr. Paul Bartsch, of the National Museum, in this city, who is a specialist on pearls and pearl fisheries. Coming at a time when the price of pearls is soaring heavenward, the possibilities of the scheme  are startling. According to Mr. Bartsch. The pearls may be grown in four

years, and millions of dollars' worth can be marketed each year. In fact, says the Washington scientist, the output from the bottom of the Potomac need be regulated only by the state of the pearl market. It would never do, of course, to raise the jewels in such quantities as to flood the world's market and lower the price. "It has come to pass," says Dr. Bartsch, "that pearls of great Mice-may be planted and grown as simply as one raises potatoes in a garden.

There is a man in the far Pacific who has this year an area of 3,000 acres of them growing in profusion. Half of the tropical oceans are open to such farming, and pearls equal to those grown in the South Sea. may be raised in the Potomac River, some of the streams of the Mississippi valley, and where the Colorado flows  to the Pacific. There seems no reason why the next few years should not witness the production of pearls by the ton, or, for that matter,

by the shipload. Like Picking Watermelons.

"A resident of Japan, A Mr. Makimoto, is the original pearl farmer and the planter of the present great area. His operations are based upon an application of learning acquired at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Now comes an American, John I. Solomon, of New York, who has patented a process which perfects farming methods and eliminates waste and chance. Mr. Solomon has a little machine which indicates when the pearl is ripe for picking. He can select the marketable ones as readily as an 'experienced farmer can go into his garden and pick ripe watermelons. "Makimoto, the Japanese, when at Johns Hopkins, studied zoology, as did the other men in his class.

He learned that the pearl was produced in certain kinds of mussels in an accidental way. It was due to the presence of a foreign

substance inside the shell of the bivalve. This foreign substance caused irritation, and to relieve itself of the annoyance the mussel threw around it a coating which smoothed It over and made Its presence less annoying. A grain of sand might cause the production of a pearl. More commonly, however, they were caused by a parasite which entered the mussel and formed the nucleus for the pearl growth. The grain of sand was most likely to find a place next to the shell and the pearl forming around it is but a half sphere. The parasite enters the body of the mussel and the pearl is deposited on all sides of It, making the perfectly spherical pearl. Therefore those formed about the parasites are greatly superior to the others.  Diving Done by Beautiful Women.

"Mikimoto returned to Japan with these fundamental facts. His home was at Shema, on the Bay of Ago, a region that for centuries has been famed for its pearls. Here so many generations of the people have spent their lives diving for pearls that they are as much at home In the water as a seal. The diving is done largely by the women, and the fame of the beauty and shapeliness of these near mermaids has spread the world over. 'Under the old system pearl fishing was a mere matter of chance. The diver brought up great numbers of the mussels, opened them and searched them for the occasional pearl.- Perhaps one in a hundred, or one in a thousand yielded returns. Perhaps the greater proportion of the pearls found were still small and undeveloped. Their value was slight, but with a year or two more of growth they would have been worth while. Maklmoto's Idea was to prevent the destruction of great numbers of mussels that might later bear pearls, to conserve those that were in an immature condition, and to cause the great majority to produce Instead of the minority. This latter, was he ir.osl Important, part of the work. It rested upon the introduction of the foreign substance into the mollusk which would serve as the nucleus.

"The Buddhist priests have for centuries placed the images of their gods between the bodies and the shells of mollusks with the result that these would be coated over with pearl. Then the shell would be shown and a miracle proclaimed. This is comparatively easy, but the pearl resulting is but a half sphere. The Japanese fastened two of these together and obtained a fairly marketable stone. - But it had no such value as would a 'stone that was normally spherical. They are now  producing these spherical stones. They guard the method of doing this with the greatest tenacity. Yet It is a purely mechanical process and can be accomplished by anybody who will

take sufficient pains. It might be done by setting the foreign substance on a pin which would produce a practically perfect stone. It might be done by Introducing the foreign substance into the fleshy part of "the mollusk.

Finally it might be done artificially in exactly the method that the natural pearls are developed by the introduction of the parasite which causes the natural pearl. This parasite may be bred easily and introduced Into the body of the mollusk. Pearls Yield Him  $6,000,000 a Year. "Makimoto introduced all these methods into the grounds he controlled In the Bay of Argo. He inoculated the various irritants into the mollusks and. planted them in favorable grounds. From time to time he took some of them up end examined the growth of the pearls. He found that the mollusk should be Inoculated at three years of, age and that the pearl should be developed to Its perfection in four years more. When Dr. Hugh M. Smith, of the American board of fisheries, visited these pearling grounds some years ago ten of the mollusks were taken up from one of the best matured beds. Out of the ten, seven contained valuable pearls. The plant is so developed as to yield 300,000 pearls a year. It would not be wise to produce a greater amount for fear of endangering .the market! Those produced are probably worth $20 each on an average, which yields a return of $6,000,000  a year. Thus is Japanese ingenuity outdoing the Yankee by-applying the information gotten from him.

"The fresh-water mussels of .the United States each year produce $300,000 In pearls as an incident in the gathering, of the shells for the making of buttons.  These mussels are great fellows, as big as a plate, and excellent producers of mother of pearl, the material from which pearl 'buttons are made, and this is the test "of the ability, to produce good ornamental pearls.

Great quantities of the biggest and best shells in the world are produced throughout the Philippine Islands. The Gulf of California yields more natural pearls and of a better quality than any section of the world, with the exception of Ceylon. So is the possibility of pearl farming at the very door of every Washington Ian. With this possibility and with the proven" achievement, in Japan it seems almost a certainty that great numbers of people will shortly enter tins business, and that pearls will be artificially produced in any quantities that the market demands. Natural Pearl Grounds Giving Out.

"There is but one limit to this ability of the people to produce pearls artificially. That limit is in the number of men obtainable who have the skill to carry on the work. The operation is a delicate one. It must be accomplished with great precision. Men trained in laboratory work are best fitted for It. They must be clever and dexterous. .Of course, it would, be possible to train numbers of men who are hot from the colleges to do this work, .and that will come about! It is the dexterity of the Japanese "that is today making such a phenomenal success." Dr. Bartsch's amazing story of the possibilities awaiting the men who turn their attention to the waters of the Potomac comes at a time when good-sized pearls are  becoming exceedingly scarce.  Dealers have recently' declared that the fishing grounds for first-class pearls have been  depleted, and. There will be no further choice ones put on the  market, except an occasional assignment from some Eastern potentate, who finds himself in financial need and sells his jewels.

It comes at a time when science is practically baffled after half a century of effort to produce artificial diamonds, economically. It comes at a time when prosperity is crying aloud for additional jewels with which to adorn, itself. Granting that the gems can be produced in quantities and at little cost, a delicate situation is precipitated, for, if great quantities of them are put on the market, prices will go tumbling and the market will be ruined. A gem is prized more for its rarity than its beauty, and who would wear diamonds if they were as plentiful as pebbles? It is realized that the moment the producers of the artificially induced pearls lose control of the market prices will go tumbling and the pearl will become as scorned as it is now prized.

Searching for Pearls with X-Rays. Just at this, time, on the eve of the development of the new industry, an American has come forward .with ah invention which greatly simplifies the whole process. This is a sort of an X-ray machine which will take a picture of a tray of live  mussels and show just what pearls they really contain, where they are located, whether they are mature, and in general all the information that might be obtained by opening the mussels. This saves, an those, mussels that have no pearls that they, may go on breeding yet others that may possess them. It also saves those that are producing pearls which have not yet come to maturity. With It there is no, necessity for opening any shell that does not contain a marketable pearl. It is. a device that should multiply many

times the possible productiveness of any given bed and do away with the haphazard of present methods.

The richest pearl fisheries in the Americas at present are those of the Gulf of California, centering around La Paz and along the outer coast of Lower California. Cortez first despoiled the Indians of this section of the pearls it produced and startled the court of Spain with their richness. Later another Spaniard for a Lifetime obtained from 300 to 600 pounds of pearls here every year, packed them over the mountains on mules, and sold them by the bushel. 

According, to Dr. George F. Kunz, one of the world's greatest authorities on pearls, those of the finest water should possess a perfect skin, fine orient, and delicate texture. It should be free from specks and flaws, and of a translucent white color, with a subdued, Iridescent sheen. It should be perfectly spherical or symmetrically pear shaped. White or pink pearls are the finest, owing to their delicate sheen. Sometimes the outer layer can be removed, the next layer being, of finer, texture, and the pearl in this way improved. One Pearl Worth 425,000. The Lower California pearls are of a great variety of-shapes and colors. They  are round, pear-shaped, flat on one side, baroque or irregular in shape. In color they may be white, pink, blue, green, brown, and black. Some of the most famous pearls In history were taken from these waters. One of the most beautiful gems in the Spanish crown Is an  famous Mexican pearl weighing 400 grains. With hardly an exemption there are American pearls among the crown Jewels of every ruler in Europe. At the World's Fair in Paris there was exhibited a set of seven, black pearls from these Mexican fisheries which are today worth $50,000. The Emperor of Austria paid $20,000 for a black pearl from Mexico, and Napoleon II was presented with one valued at $25,000. Pearls worth $5,000 each are. constantly being ,found;  One of a peculiar brown has been found and sold for $8,000. Senora Diaz, wife of the President of Mexico, has a collection of native pearls that, might well be the envy of many of the crowned heads  of Europe.

Among the poorest natives it is no uncommon thing to find the rarest gems being worn in some crude mounting. There are many tales floating about of such stones that have been  purchased for small sums and sold for amounts that multiply these sums by the thousand. The work of the divers in all pearl gathering is of great interest. In Mexican waters, for instance,  there are two types of divers; the "head diver." Who uses no paraphernalia whatever, and the diving machine men. The former is able to stay under water but one or two minutes, cutting loose what mussels he can lay hands on and Doming, to the surface. The latter may stay  under for two or three hours a day and gather vastly more material. Recently submarine boats have been designed as an aid in pearl fishing and promise to be useful. Duels to the Death with Sharks.  The fear of the shark is ever in the breast of the diver. Yet there is a superstition to the effect that the shark knows where the valuable pearls lie and that when a shark Is seen loitering about a certain spot there is a pearl on the bottom beneath. A splashing of the waters may drive the dangerous fish away and the native will begin his search for the hidden gem. He does this despite the fact that he knows the shark will return. Often battle is thus precipitated when the driver wields a knife he carries for the purpose in a fight to the death.

 But when the farming becomes scientific all these things cease. The farmer knows the bed in which the pearls are coming to maturity. They have been planted four years earlier and a mollusk is a most sedentary creature. It fixes itself to a stone and hangs there year after year unless broken loose by strong tides. The planters naturally choose protected bays and are sure of finding their plantings in place. Then at harvest time the mollusks may be brought up and. If the process is as successful as that in Japan, 70 per cent of them will contain pearls. This is the pearl farming of the future. Will Washingtonians allow the owners of other waters no better adapted to pearl planting than the Potomac reap the big profits of pioneers in the business? If not, they must be stir themselves.