isa-normaladvance-1909-00105

Description:	THE NORMAL ADVANCE105went from side to side. Si was spitting vehemently and making remarks to himself.I think the plow sees snakes too! laughedEmily.Mr. Corntassel was rising and sitting alternately, and yelling Whoa, and Gee. Hewas now on the other side of the lot. Therewas a deadly silence.B—a—n—g! The plow was in motor heaven ! Em fainted and Al rushed over to thevictim. Si was up brushing off the dust andswearing loudly.Ill bet that cussed Danl has went an putgasoline in it, he shouted.Aje you hurt? asked Al.Jest shuck up a little, was the reply.The whole family was now on the scene.Em and Si were taken to the house, which presented a perfect picture of chaos.Em was coming to.Al—lets stay in the flat.Im willing! he replied, meekly.SCIENCE DEPARTMENTThe Fresh Water MusselULYSSES O. COXEvery boy who has been so fortunate as tohave spent his boyhood near a stream is familiar with some of the common, fresh watermussels. Until a few years ago, however, theselowly animals had received little attentionfrom the commercial world, as they were considered to be of little value except to furnishlaboratory material for zoology classes-A German by the name of Boepple whilewading in the Mississippi river near Muscatine, Iowa, several years ago gathered someof the mussel shells and at once noticed thatthey were very similarto the shells from whichhe had seen buttons made in his native country.Thinking that they might be of value he sentsome of the Mississippi shells to his home inGermany, where they were made into buttonsthat were pronounced of excellent quality.Encouraged by the report Mr. Boepple startedto manufacture pearl buttons in a small wayat Muscatine, Iowa.The demand for the shells increased andsoon mussel gatherers were to be found duringthe summer months all along the banks of theupper Mississippi. The industry extended toother streams of the Mississippi valley untilnow the supply of mussel shells is almost exhausted.The fact that a few mussels contain pearlsand slugs has added to the interest and profitof shell gathering and there is always muchspeculation as to the possibility of finding avaluable pearl. Shell buyers and button manufacturers have even been accused of originating stories about valuable pearls which aresupposed to have been found in localities wherethe interest in shell collecting has waned. Immediately the mussel men set about their workwith renewed energy and the result is, at least,a goodly number of tons of shells for the button factories.Mussels are found in nearly all the freshwater streams but different species seek theirproper environment in each stream. Some arefound only on sand or gravel bars, others arealways in the mud and some are generally distributed. In. places the whole bed of the riverwill be found completely paved with livingmussels and dead shells, and these beds may extend for long distances up and down thestream. It is on such a bed that musseling isprofitable, if the bed has not been recentlyworked. There are places on the Wabash riverbetween Terre Haute and Vincennes where itis claimed that more than one hundred musselboats have been seen at work at one time.
Source:	http://indstate.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/isuarchive/id/34135
Collection:	Indiana State University Archives

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