SEA MUSSEL MYTILUS EDULIS. 243 



for a dinner in the association building at which mussels were made the conspicuous 

 feature. The dinner, which was well attended, was followed bv an illustrated lecture 

 on the biology and economic importance of the sea mussel. The event was well 

 advertised beforehand, and briefs were furnished to the newspapers of the city. The 

 fish dealers were prepared with a fresh supply of mussels, a sufficient quantity of economic 

 circulars containing the recipes for cooking them, and the placards bearing the recom- 

 mendation of the Bureau of Fisheries. Persons who purchased mussels were presented 

 with a circular. As a consequence the whole city was eating or talking about mussels 

 on the day following this active campaign. Similar dinners, followed by a lecture, were 

 given in one of the large Worcester churches and the Brockton (Mass.) Y. M. C. A. 



The general result has been to create what promises to be a permanent and growing 

 demand for this shellfish. In Boston a year after the campaign many dealers who 

 never handled them before were selling mussels and were getting higher prices than had 

 prevailed previously. In Worcester several of the markets experienced a growing mussel 

 business, and the conditions were apparently the same in Lowell. Brockton seems to 

 be the only place where the people could not be persuaded to eat them. A Providence 

 dealer reported a considerable increase in his mussel sales, which he attributed to the 

 publicity given the campaign by the newspapers. Pushcart venders in Boston have 

 been selling them, and doubtless many other parties not known to the Bureau have 

 taken up the business. The demand on the Narragansett Bay beds, which were hundreds 

 of acres in extent, was so heavy during the campaign that the Bureau was lead to believe 

 it unwise to continue the publicity work further until new sources of supply were found 

 available. 



In the summer of 19 17 the writer was directed by the Bureau to make a reconnais- 

 sance of the mussel beds on a limited portion of the north Atlantic coast, with the object 

 of locating positively beds which were sufficiently large and productive to support a 

 commercial fishery and to collect data concerning their areas, depth of water over the 

 beds, abundance, size, and quality of the shellfish, and also to consult with local fisher- 

 men to ascertain if they would engage in the fishery for mussels provided there should 

 be a market for them. The territory examined included Plymouth Harbor, Mass. ; Nar- 

 ragansett Bay, R. I.; and the north and south shores of Long Island, N. Y. Approxi- 

 mately 3,715 acres of mussel beds were located and charted. Of this area it was esti- 

 mated that about 1,000 acres of the shellfish, containing not less than 2,000,000 bushels, 

 were ready for the immediate market and that 1,500 acres would yield 1,000,000 bushels 

 of seed mussels less than 1 inch long. The rest of the area was occupied by old beds 

 which were depleted or mixed with such a great quantity of dead shells and trash as to 

 make working them unprofitable commercially. The survey was necessarily incomplete 

 owing to the brief time allotted for it, but was sufficient to show that for the time there 

 was an abundant supply of mussels available immediately for the market besides vast 

 quantities of seed mussels which could be transplanted to favorable situations and made 

 ready for future needs. 



In the year 19 14, while the Bureau of Fisheries was engaged in placing the merits 

 of the fresh sea mussel as a food before the public in Boston and vicinity, an oyster 

 company in Providence was conducting some important experiments on the preserva- 

 tion of mussels by pickling and canning. Splendid samples in the form of canned mussels, 

 pickled mussels, deviled mussels, or Muscello, and mussel cocktail were produced. The 



