OF MASSACHUSETTS. 213 



are capable of excellent production if properly planted. Wellfleet 

 flats extend from Duck Creek to Herring River and from Herring River 

 along the shores of Great Island for a distance of 4V2 miles, and cover 

 an area of 400 acres. The Great Island flats are not especially adapted 

 for clams, and only parts of these can ever be successfully cultivated, 

 while possibly all the area between Duck Creek and Herring River can 

 be reclaimed. South Wellfleet flats, which comprise an area of 200 

 acres, are much poorer flats, consisting for the most part of mud and 

 shifting sand. Only the firmer portions, about 50 acres, can be made 

 productive by planting with clams. 



At Wellfleet the soft clam fishery can hardly be styled an industry. 

 In the winter a few men go clamming when there is nothing else to do. 

 The majority prefer razor clamming, which is a considerable winter 

 industry, owing to the demand for this bait at Provincetown. Three 

 men clam during the summer, doing practically all their digging at 

 Billingsgate, while 8 others are in this work during the winter. 



The flats of Wellfleet were never very productive, but formerly were 

 capable of furnishing a far greater production than at present. This 

 decline is only accounted for by overdigging, which has brought about 

 thp present scarcity. 



Summary of Industry. 



Number of men, ........•• H 



Capital invested $300 



Production, 1907 : — 



Bushels, 800 



Value, $640 



Total area (acres) : — 



Sand, 450 



Mud, 5 



Gravel, 150 



Mussels and eel grass, ........ - 



Total, 605 



Productive area (acres) : — 



Good clamming, .......... 3 



Scattering clams, ......... 12 



Barren area possibly productive (acres), ...... 250 



Waste barren area (acres), 340 



Possible normal production, $28,000 



Truro. 

 The clam flats at Truro are confined principally to the Pamet River. 

 At the mouth of this river near the head of the harbor bar is a sand 

 flat comprising several acres, where the bulk of the clams are produced. 

 In South Truro, Stony Bar and other similar patches of rocky beach 

 are fairly well bedded with clams. Scattering clams are found over 

 the shifting bars which skirt the main land on the bay side, but 

 nowhere are clams sufficiently abundant to warrant any serious attempt 



