34 THE MOLLUSK FISHERIES 



We learn from the dictionaries that a farm is defined to be a tract of 

 land under one control, devoted to agriculture, etc.; and that agriculture is 

 the cultivation of the soil for food products or other useful or valuable 

 growths. All this is very familiar knowledge, as applied to the dry land; 

 but that there may fairly be brought within these definitions the operations 

 of an industry in which lands covered by the salt waters of our bays and 

 harbors are tilled, cultivated, raked, harrowed and planted with seedling 

 bivalves, and harvests of a valuable product garnered, constituting a superb 

 food for the masses, is less familiar, and to many may seem quite astonish- 

 ing. It is within a comparatively few years that this unique style of farm- 

 ing has had its growth and development, until now many thousands of acres 

 of land under water have been carefully surveyed, and the boundaries 

 marked by buoys and stakes. 1 



To bring the shellfisheries of Massachusetts to their maximum pro- 

 duction will take years, but within five years the production can be 

 nearly doubled, if work in the right direction is begun at once. Pa- 

 tience will be required to overcome the obstacles which must be met, 

 and the change must necessarily be gradual. 



Every year the difficulties of reform increase. Owing to a steadily 

 increasing demand, the natural supply is becoming smaller, and con- 

 sequently the difficulty "of increasing it becomes so much the harder. 

 Soon the line of possibility will be crossed, and the shellfisheries will 

 become an industry of the past. A few shellfish will always remain, 

 but as an important industry, the shellfisheries, if no remedy is ap- 

 plied, in twenty-five years will be commercially extinct. While there is 

 still time, let action be taken. 



The utilization of the barren shellfish areas, wise laws, good regula- 

 tions and systematic methods of culture are necessary, in order to 

 obtain the maximum production from these sea farms. The sea farm 

 possesses one advantage over the ordinary farm, — the soil never be- 

 comes exhausted, as the shellfish derive their sustenance from the 

 water, utilizing indirectly the waste nitrates of the land. To do this it 

 is necessary that shellfish culture be at once begun, either by indi- 

 viduals or by towns. 



Three methods of shellfish culture offer ways of approach towards 

 the utilization of the waste areas : — 



(1) To leave the matter wholly in the hands of the town. This is 

 the poorest way, as has been shown in the past. Unless the town offi- 

 cials were well informed about the shellfisheries, it would be an absurd 

 farce to entrust the future of this important industry wholly in their 

 hands. 



(2) Place all power with the State, instead of with the town. 

 Have a unified and simplified system, whereby shellfish farms and 

 grants can be leased by the individuals. This plan, much better than 



i Forest, Fish and Game Commission Bulletin, Shellfish Culture in New York, 1905. By 

 B. Frank Wood. 



