THE OYSTER-INDUSTRY. 55 



tliat the oysters of the Seekonk, like those of the Taunton river, are vividly green. No better reason can be 

 assigned than in the former case, and, like the others, this seed, when transplanted for a few months, entirely loses 

 its verdant tint. Seekonk oysters, therefore, never go to market, but are all caught for the seed. This catching 

 begins November 1, according to law, and must close on May 1. These dates are arranged with the purpose to 

 prevent successful planting, and so protectt the fishery; but the planters buy as long as the weather remains "open'' 

 and warm. Very little raking is done in this river in the spring. The men who catch it are riverraen, who work 

 at this a few weeks in November and December, and the rest of the year do other water-work. The law forbids 

 taking more than 10 bushels in one day to each boat, but if the seed is plentiful, this law is very often violated, since 

 there is no ofQcer to watch. Perhaps it is a direct good effect of these regulations, that 1S7S and 1879 have witnessed 

 the largest yield of Seekonk seed known in a dozen years. The main buyers are AVilcox, Browne, Wall, and Adams, 

 of India point; but everybody buys a few bushels who can. The catchers have to take what pay is offered them, 

 but competition sometimes produces a good rate, the usual price being 25 cents a bushel. This being public 

 ground, and everybody having a chance at it (many of the heavy owners send si^are boats and crews up this river 

 to rake at odd times), it is impossible to come at any close estimate of the amount of seed oysters taken from the 

 Seekonk during the last year. The truth I believe to be somewhere between five and ten thousand bushels. It is 

 a shapely, hardy seed, opening well, and is in general demand, some planters putting it at the head of the list for 

 its good qualities. One year on its new bed suftices to remove totally the green tinge, and two years to make it 

 marketable. 



Seed-oysters from ABJoiNiNa states. —The remainder of the seed-oysters planted in Narraganset l)ay 

 come from the Connecticut shore. East river. Fire island and the Great South bay, Somerset (planted chiefly by 

 those owning privileges in Taunton river), and from various parts of Buzzard's bay. I often asked which was best, 

 but could never get evidence of much superiority in any one kind. The success of a planting does not depend on 

 the kind of seed put down, so much as it does upon a thousand cu'cumstances of weather, water, and bottom. The 

 seed which would do excellently in one cove would behave badly in the next, and vice versa, individual i)references 

 being founded upon these varying and unexjilained experiences. The seed from the south shore of Long Island used 

 to be cheapest of all, and good ; but a Boston demand ran up the price beyond the pockets of Ehode Island planters. 

 In general, it may be said that any seed transplanted to Narraganset bay develops into a better oyster than 

 it would have come to be if left in its native waters. 



Undecided questions in oyster-planting. — Similarly, it is hard to tell what has been the outcome of 

 a particular planting — that is, how much profit is made — because it is inextricably mixed with various other work. 

 Native seed put down and ready to grow, has cost on an average about GO cents a bushel. To estimate profits ou 

 it is out of the question, until the oysters are all sold, nor even then. If all does well, treble value is calculated upon 

 in three years' growth. 



It is not even decided whether it pays best to grow "natives" or fatten "Ghesapeakes". The first year you 

 plant a piece of ground the oysters do the best ; the next year poorer ; the third year they fail. Consequentlj-, 

 the oystermen try not to plant the same area continually, but shift their oysters around to allow the old ground to 

 be revived by free contact with the rejuvenating sea. If left down in one place more than three years, it is said 

 that many of the oysters die, from no reason but exhaustion. It is the universal opinion, that the character of the 

 bottom has quite as much to do with their nourishment and good growth as has the water. Ou sand they grow 

 slower than in mud, but are of better shape and flavor. Similarly, they need to be far enough apart not to crowd 

 one another into deformity. 



Much ground that is not now suitable might be made so, but needs to be carefully prepared, if the planter has 

 any hopes of catching spawn,* and the more intelligent say that carelessness in this respect, and a lack of any source 

 of spat, is the reason why in the Warren river and at other points no " set " has occurred for many years, and the 

 depositing of cultch, in the shape of old oyster-shells, has been in vain. It is found on the seed-grounds, that the 

 more a spot is raked (not denuded by a dredge, but often raked), the more it produces. Cat point, Seekonk river, 

 is one example of this; Somerset, after the full-dredging, is another instance. To prepai-e a muddy tract, you need 

 to pave it with shells. This is done early in the spring, 10,000 bushels of shells, say, being thrown on, at an 

 expense of from $250 to $300. Then in June, when the shells have settled well iuto the mud and formed a strong 

 surface, throw down more clean shells, and scatter a quantity of large living oysters just ready to spawn — 100 

 bushels of "mothers" to three or four thousand bushels of shells. Scallop-shells make the best stools or cultch, 

 because they are thin and brittle, and can easily be broken away from the seed when it is to be taken up and 

 transplanted. You thus have the source of spawn, and its most suitable resting place, side by side. 



Great success in several instances has followed this plan, particularly in Greenwich bay and Apponaug cove, so 

 far as the catching of spawn is concerned. One planter told me that he put down, in 1877, about $125 worth of cuLtch 

 and mother-oysters at the latter place, and calculated that he obtained, in a few weeks, $10,000 worth of seed; but 

 a little later it all died— why, he is unable to guess. Another gentleman, at the same place, last year, put dowu 

 1,60:> bushels of shells and 00 bu.shels of spawning or mother-oysters. In the immediate vicinity of these he got a 



* The very meager account given of this form of true oyster-culture is supplemented in the chapters G and U on Connecticut and 

 the Kast river, where the process is carried to a much greater degree of i)erlection. 



