THE OYSTER-INDUSTRY. 45 



the current could get down there to affect the oysters so seriously, and also on the better ground, that chemical 

 analyses fail to show the presence of anything to account for the greenish stain, which is precisely that so highly 

 esteemed a few years ago in the French oysters of Marennes, and other districts. I was assured that this greenness 

 varied iu different parts of the river, and with different seasons, and that if auy oysters happened to have grown 

 high up on the bridge-piers, or elsewhere off the bottom, they were not green at all. Just how deleterious to health 

 these green Somerset oysters are, I could not learn satisfactorily. Nobody pretends that their effects are fatal, and 

 some say they are as good as any other inferior oyster. The general opinion, however, is, that eating a dozen raw 

 ones is certain to be followed by violent sickness at the stomach. No doubt prejudice has much to do with it, for 

 there is no food which the imagination would more quickly influence the stomach to reject, than the soft, slippery, 

 and somewhat insipid fresh-water oystex. The same green appearance occurs of late in the oysters of Seekonk 

 river, to be spoken of later on ; and in both cases transplanting entirely removes the stain and elevates the quality, 

 which is said to be slowly improving. In consequence of this stain, the eating of Somerset oysters, iu their natural 

 state, has been nearly given up, and the whole trade of the river is devoted to the production and sale of seed. Of 

 course no planting of any sort, beyond the occasional transference of "set" from one part of the river to another, 

 has ever been undertaken. 



Culture of seed-oystees in Taunton river. — The number of young oysters born every fall in Taunton 

 river varies, but there is never a year wholly without them. The season of 1877 was a good one, and about U'n 

 j^ears previous, the autumn of "the great September gale", saw an extraordinary production, or "set", as the 

 appearance of the young oysters is termed here. The rocks and gravel along both shores are covered to a greater 

 or less extent, but in addition to this, every owner spreads down great quantities of clean shells every summer, in 

 the hoi)e of catching spawn. Generally, they are successful, and sometimes extremely so. Some experiments have 

 been tried with sunken brush; but though the spawn attached itself well enough, the currents and winds are so 

 strong and uncertain as to drift it all away and lose it to its owner. Perhaps 25,000 or 30,000 bushels of shells are 

 spread in this river annually. The favorites are scallop shells, because thej^ are thin and brittle, so that the young 

 oysters anchored to them are easily broken apart or detached. Scallop shells are somewhat scarce, and 3,000 

 bushels put down at Assonet in 1878, cost $300. The result, nevertheless, is often very gratii^ying. Mr. S. K. 

 niggins told me, that from 500 bushels of shells placed near Fall Eiver, he took up the following year 3,500 

 bushels of young oysters. The annual product, iu seed, of the different town-fronts along the river, is given 

 approximately, as follows : 



Bushels. Bushels. Bushels. 



Berlieley 11,000 Somerset 6,000 Assonet 13,000 



Dighton 3,000 Freetown 10,000 l-'all River 8,000 



Totjil "Somerset seed" 51.000 



Putting an average value of 45 cents a bushel on this (the sales of the Somerset Oyster Company in 1879 

 netted them 42 cents), gives the sum of $22,950 as the value of the yearly crop of Taunton river seed. Of this, 

 $5,400 is paid as revenue to the towns, and the balance mainly to native assistants in dredging, tonging, and 

 transportation. The river-towns may, therefore, be said to derive about $20,000 as the annual value of their fisheries 

 to them, besides the oysters needed "for family use". This money is widely distributed. While the law permits 

 the raking of the river during nine months of the year, it is nevertheless the fact, that the main part of the work 

 must be done in a much shorter time. As soon as the weather permits, or about April 1, the proprietors put gangs 

 of men at work, and keep at it until the end of May. The catch is nearly all contracted for before it is caught, and 

 every one is straining to fill their orders at the promised time. The water is from three to twenty feet deep, and 

 the tonging not very difficult. The tongs used do not work by the twisting of the grain of an oaken pivot, but ou 

 a brass swivel-pivot, known as the "Somerset" tongs. All, however, do not approve of the invention, averring 

 that it wears out the tongs. During the months of April and May, about 60 persons are employed in Somerset 

 alone, and in other towns in jiroportion — perhaps 400 along the whole river — who, as a rule, live along the bank, and 

 often own the boats they operate — if not owned, one is hii'ed from their employer at 25 cents a day. The catching is 

 all done by the bushel. Now from 10 to 15 cents a bushel is given, according to the scarcity of the mollusks, and a 

 smart man might make $2 a day, though the average will not exceed $1 50. Formerly wages were higher: and 

 perhaps the lowering has induced that constant effort on the part of the catchers to cheat the buyers, through false 

 measures, etc., which is so freely charged against them. 



The ground is cleaned up pretty thoroughly by the time the 1st of June is reached, and in the fall little raking 

 is done, it being considered poor policy. A well-known lessee on the Freetown shore, however, thinking, at the 

 expiration of his lease a few years ago, that he would be unable to renew it, resolved selfishly to dredge his whole 

 land in the autumn, leaving as barren a ground as possible for his successor — a proceeding quite characteristic of 

 the locality. He did so, but succeeded in renewing his lease, and returned.to his raking the ensuing spring rather 

 ruefully, expecting to find little or nothing. To his astonishment, he picked off of an area that had usually yielded 

 him 0,000 to 7,000 bushels, no less than 12,000! Hence, he concluded that the thorough scraping had done the 

 bottom good, though where he got the spawn at that late day is a mystery. This small seed, less tUan a year old, 

 and about the size of your thumb nail, is widely distributed, going to beds on Cape Cod, iu Buzzard's bay, along the 



