Fishing for gold : the story of Alabama's catfish industry
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Fishing for gold : the story of Alabama's catfish industry
（Fire ant books）
University of Alabama Press, c2006
- : pbk
Available at / 1 libraries
-
No Libraries matched.
- Remove all filters.
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [243]-250) and index
HTTP:URL=http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0513/2005015400.html Information=Table of contents
Description and Table of Contents
- Volume
-
ISBN 9780817314910
Description
The Fort Mims massacre changed the course of American history in many ways, not the least of which was the ensuing rise of one Andrew Jackson to the national stage. The unprecedented Indian victory over the encroaching Americans who were bent on taking their lands and destroying their culture horrified many and injured the young nation's pride. Tragedies such as this one have always rallied Americans to a common cause: a single-minded determination to destroy the enemy and avenge the fallen. The August 30, 1813, massacre at Fort Mims, involving hundreds of dead men, women, and children, was just such a spark. Gregory Waselkov tells compellingly the story of this fierce battle at the fortified plantation home of Samuel Mims in the Tensaw District of the Mississippi Territory. With valuable maps, tables, and artifact illustrations, Waselkov looks closely at the battle to cut through the legends and misinformation that have grown around the event almost from the moment the last flames died at the smoldering ruins.
At least as important as the details of the battle, though, is his elucidation of how social forces remarkably converged to spark the conflict and how reverberations of the battle echo still today, nearly two hundred years later.
- Volume
-
: pbk ISBN 9780817353445
Description
With a wonderful ear for dialogue and in flowing narrative style, Karni Perez weaves together oral histories collected from early hatchery owners, catfish farmers, processors, and researchers to recount the important contributions made by Alabamians to the channel catfish industry. Perez describes the struggles and glories of fish culture from its early days as an experimental venture to the thriving present-day commercial enterprise that supplies warmwater fish for the American food industry. As Perez states, ""The catfish industry started out in Alabama as a do-it-yourself and figure-it-out-yourself kind of enterprise."" We hear how men who were mostly cattle farmers learned to nudge male and female fish into spawning in crudely constructed aquaria, how growers discovered the dissolved oxygen needs of their ""herd"" when big die-offs occurred, how Lenson Montz and Otis Breland designed the first paddle aerator to remedy the problem, how farmers eventually trained a bottomfeeding species to rise to the water surface to eat so their numbers could be better estimated. In one dramatic story, we learn how an early processor experimenting with a skinning machine lost a piece of his hand in front of a crowd of horrifield locals but, after it was retrieved from the skin basket, it was reattached by a town doctor and healed perfectly. The machine was modified accordingly and became an essential component of modern fish processing. In addition to telling the remarkable stories of individual contributions by farmers and researchers, Perez explains the positive effects played by improved public infrastructure, continued biological research, state legislation, and federal recognition of aquaculture as agriculture. From Chapter Three: ""You're crazy,"" the bank officer declared with a friendly chuckle. ""Why, the Warrior River is full of catfish for anyone who wants them. There are more in there than people will ever eat. And you think you're going to go sell them when folks can go get them for nothing? That's just a bunch of dreams!"" From Chapter Two: ""A crop duster's error, a visit by a curious feed company researcher, a fluke of the weather, a coincidental encounter at a gas station...How could the three men, or anyone else for that matter, guess that these chance circumstances would play into the birth of an industry that would mushroom over the next forty or so years into one of the largest contributors to the state's economy and that of the entire southeastern United States?
by "Nielsen BookData"
