106 REPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 



the loosening of the earth about the clams is as good for them as it 

 is for a hill of corn or potatoes. The fallacy in this argument is in 

 the supposition that the clam draws its nourishment from the soil 

 in which it grows, as is the case with the corn or potatoes. As a 

 matter of fact the food of the clams is the microscopic life in the 

 water, and can be secured only when the clam bed is covered with 

 water. 



In reality the effect of digging over the clams is many-sided. To 

 illustrate, by two examples: On Cornelius Island, in Wickford 

 Harbor, the clams set extremely thick in 1904. A portion of the 

 shore was set aside by the Commission for purposes of experiment, 

 and was not dug over at all. Alongside this protected area the shore 

 has been visited almost daily by the clammers. In the protected 

 area the clams were so thick at the time of setting that there was not 

 room for the growth of all of them, and so, as they increased in size, 

 many were forced out upon the surface, so that in a short while 

 the ground was thick with shells. The ice carried off many of the 

 small clams in winter, and the gulls and black ducks destroyed many 

 more; but still they were so abundant that there was no opportunity 

 for growth, and their size has increased but little, averaging now but 

 a little over an inch. 



In the area alongside, where the clammers have been digging 

 almost daily, the clams are two or three inches in length, and many 

 barrels have been taken out of this rather limited area. The soil is 

 similar in the two localities, the currents of water striking the two 

 about equal in strength; the only difference has been that in one the 

 soil has been dug over continually, in the other not at all. In this 

 case certainly the advantage is with the well-dug-over area. And 

 yet, on the other hand, the new set of the present year is found 

 among the thickly populated area of the protected portion, and 

 hardly at all in the portion disturbed by digging. In the latter 

 locality the young clams were unable to set because the upper layers 

 were made so loose and shifting by the continual digging, or if they 



