6 THE MOLLUSK FISHERIES 



of working together for the best interests of the towns or of the 

 public. This communistic system is distinctly unsound, and 

 is in direct opposition to the principles of social and econon 

 development. The man who advocates keeping farm lands mi- 

 tilled and in common, for the sake of the few wild blackberries 

 they might produce, would be considered mentally unbalanced ; 

 but it is precisely this system which holds sway over our rela- 

 tively richer sea gardens. With no thought of seed time, but 

 only of harvest, the fertile tidal flats are yearly divested of their 

 fast-decreasing output by reckless and ruthless exploitation, 

 and valuable territories when once exhausted are allowed to 

 become barren. All hopes for the morrow are sacrificed to 

 the clamorous demands of the present. The more the supply 

 decreases, the more insistent becomes the demand ; and the 

 greater the demand, the more relentless grows the campaign of 

 spoliation. The entire shore front of the Commonwealth is 

 scoured and combed by irresponsible aliens and by exemplars 

 of the " submerged tenth " who are now but despoilers, but who 

 if opportunity were present might become cultivators of the 

 flats rather than devastators. The thoughtful fisherman, who 

 would control the industry in a measure, is under present con- 

 ditions overruled by his selfish or short-sighted fellow workers, 

 and is of necessity forced to join their ranks by the clinching 

 argument that if the shellfisheries are to be ruined anyway, he 

 might as well have his share as long as they last. The theory 

 of public ownership of shellfisheries has been weighed in the 

 balance and found wanting. The necessity for some radical 

 change in the present system is becoming more and more ap- 

 parent, and a system of private control, with certain modifica- 

 tions, is the logical result. 



Need of Reform. — The shellfish supply of Massachusetts 

 is steadily declining. So extensive is this decline that it is 

 unnecessary to mention the abundant proofs of almost com- 

 plete exhaustion in certain localities and of failing output in 

 others. While the apparent cause of this decrease is overfish- 

 ing and unsystematic digging, the real cause can be readily 

 traced to the present defective system of town control, which 

 has made possible, through inefficiency and neglect, the de- 

 plorable condition of this important industry. Unless the de- 



