CONNECTICUT: COAST TOWNS WEST OF NEW HAVEN. 335 



live aloiig the shore in Stratford, who devote almost their whole time to the gathering of the young 

 oysters and selling them to the vessels which in summer throng the bay. They get from 15 to 25 

 cents a bushel, and there are perhaps fifty men who make this a business. 



" In May sloops and small schooners begin to come after the seed, which is of a year's (or less) 

 growth. They hail principally from Norwalk and its vicinity. This fleet gradually increases, until 

 in mid-summer there are sometimes to be seen from seventy-five to one hundred vessels at once in 

 the mouth of the river. These vessels do not dredge for the seed. They anchor near the bed and 

 send out skiffs, with a crew, who tong the oysters up until their skiff is full, when they take it to 

 their vessel to be unloaded. From one to half a dozen skiffs are employed by each vessel, which 

 is thus able to load up quickly, go home with its cargo, and be ready to return. To avoid any loss 

 of time, however, in voyages back and forth, some owners of beds keep one or more vessels anchored 

 in the Housatonic all the while, upon which the crews live, who load other vessels that are con- 

 stantly passing back and forth. The rapidity of this work is shown by the fact that one man with 

 two assistants will put upon his sloop a full cargo of 500 bushels in two days, and be off and back 

 in another two days, ready to go at it again. Persons who live upon the shore, and who claim to 

 found their estimate on trustworthy facts, say that 400,000 bushels of seed were taken off these 

 Housatouic beds between May and November, 1879. 



" Notwithstanding this heavy and long-continued drain these nurseries do not seem in danger 

 of depletion. Few oysters, of course, manage to reach maturity, but there are enough to furnish 

 spawn to repopulate the district, which the constant scraping fits in the best possible manner for 

 securing a set. The people of Stratford, however, are beginning to object to longer allowing an 

 unrequited privilege to everybody to rake the beds. Such an indiscriminate crowd embraces many 

 loose characters, and frequent petty annoyances, with some serious trespasses, have occurred on 

 shore. There seems no way to get rid of the nuisance, however, except to declare the whole ground 

 available for culture and stake it off. This is urged by some of the shoremen, who think they see 

 in this plan some chance of making the meadows and river bottom a valuable property, and a bless- 

 ing instead of a curse to them. This meets with considerable opposition, however, and the old fool- 

 ishness about 'natural beds' seems an unsurmountable obstacle. Every year the staking off and 

 cultivation of this river bottom is delayed Stratford loses by it in a way she will one day regret. 

 Stratford also possesses along her front very good deep-water ground, running from Stratford Point 

 to the Middle Ground, which remains to be utilized. The Housatonic seed, however, could not be 

 utilized on this outer ground, since it is the long, fresh-water variety, which would not flourish in 

 water so salt as that of the outer sound. 



"OYSTER BUSINESS AT BRIDGEPORT. At Bridgeport there is a small but flourishing oyster 

 business, participated in by three firms of planters. The natural oyster-producing ground off' this 

 harbor extended from Stratford to Black Eock, a distance of about 5 or G miles, but by 1850 it had 

 become exhausted of all salable oysters, and even became of little value as a seed-producing area. 

 Previously to that seven boats were owned at Bridgeport, all of which, since 1850, have been obliged 

 to go elsewhere or change their work. Long ago, however, a Fair Haven man utilized ground at 

 the point of the beach, at the mouth of the harbor, to bed down southern oysters, and his example 

 was followed in a small degree by Bridgeport men. The first planting of native seed, however, 

 was not until 1844, young oysters being brought from the Saugatuck and from Westport. At 

 present Stratford and Housatouic seed is chiefly used. For opening purposes the liousatouic 

 seed is regarded as the best, because it becomes salable one year quicker than the sound 



