894 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



supplies and apparatus for the use of the active fishermen ; 

 (2) the shopkeepers from whom they purchase provisions 

 and clothing; and (3) the skilled labourers who manufacture 

 for them articles of apparel, shelter, and the apparatus of 

 the trade. In addition to the professional fishermen, there 

 is a large class of men who have been called "semi- 

 professional" fishermen men who derive from the fisheries 

 less than half of their entire income. 



Taking into account all those persons who are directly 

 employed in the fisheries for a larger or smaller portion of 

 the year, those who are dependent upon fishermen in a 

 commercial way for support, and the members of their 

 families who are actually dependent upon their labours, it 

 cannot be far out of the way to estimate the total number 

 of persons dependent on the fisheries at from 800,000 to 

 1,000,000. Of the twenty-nine States and territories whose 

 citizens are engaged in the fishery industry, sixteen have 

 more than a 1000 professional fishermen. The most 

 important of these States is, of course, Massachusetts, with 

 17,000 men. 



At present the oyster is one of the cheapest articles of 

 diet in the United States, and though it can hardly be 

 expected that the price of American oysters will always 

 remain so low, still, taking into consideration the great 

 wealth of the natural beds along the entire Atlantic coast, 

 it seems certain that a moderate amount of protection 

 would keep the oyster seed far below European rates, and 

 that the immense stretches of submerged land especially 

 suited for oyster planting may be utilised and made to 

 produce an abundant harvest at much less cost than that 

 which accompanies the complicated system of culture in 

 vogue in France and Holland. 



