THE OYSTER-INDUSTRY. 57 



cents per gtillou ; Virgiuia plants, selected, $1 25 per gallon ; natives, in shell, $1 25 to $1 50 per bushel ; at retail, 

 25 to 35 cents a quart, of all kinds. Some " fancy " lots, of course, brought higher rates than these prevailing market 

 prices. In "Arnold's" and other restaurants the most palatable oysters possiI)le are laid upon the counter to 

 tempt the appetite. Those Irom Gaspe point, purely native -grown, are recognized as the very best of all, and sell 

 for five cents a piece. They are delicious. So great an industry, of course, gives support to a numerous body of 

 citizens in this district, at least during part of the year. In the summer so little is done that comparatively few are 

 employed, this number including only the proprietors of beds the dealers and assistants who are obliged to keep 

 their shops open, and the few men required for catching oysters for the feeble market, for spreading shells and 

 planting seed, and for watching the safety of the beds. Reckoning the proprietors as perhaps 100 in all, the 

 addition of the rest employed the yeai^ronnd would bring the total up to about 250; but this varies considerably 

 from year to year. They are paid by the week, as a rule, wages running from $7 to $14, and averaging about $10. 

 For the colder half of the year, " the season," as it is called, large additional help is needed, both on the water and 

 in the opening-houses that are placed close to the shore at various points, or on the wharves in the southern part 

 of Providence city. Taking all the oyster-houses together at the head of Narraganset bay, I find about 350 openers 

 employed. Add this to the 250 counted up as otherwise employed, and I have GOO men as the total. A very large 

 pi'oportion of these men are married ; and I believe it would not be unfair, all things considered, to multiply this GOO 

 by 4, which would give us 2,400 persons of all sexes and ages supported chiefly by the oyster-industry in the Rhode 

 Island district. I believe this is short of the truth. The sum of the wages paid is somewhere about $125,000 annually. 



Oyster openers and their methods. — Separating the meat from the shell is known in Providence as 

 "cutting out" an oyster. The "cutters" or openers are taken from a low grade of society, as a rule, and are about 

 one half foreigners, mostly natives of Ireland. During the summer many of them go "bony-tishiug", i. e., in chase 

 of the menhaden, Brevoortia tyrannus, others get a living in various capacities along the shore and on the water, 

 and a large portion of them are common laborers. No women are employed here in the opening houses. I was told 

 that an experiment made in employing them some years ago was regarded as a failure. Very few boys are to be 

 seen, also. Here the only method followed is that known as "side-opening". The opener holds the oyster 

 in the palm of his unsupported left hand, which is protected by a sort of gauntlet of leather, while he pries the 

 shells apart with his knife. This is a quicker method than any other, but it is very laborious, causing a hard 

 strain upon the muscles of the hand and wrist, and upon those of the left side. It has an advantage, however, of 

 producing less bre^iking and refuse than any other style of cutting out. The oyster-meats, nevertheless, are carefully 

 washed by being stirred about in large colleuders, through which clean water is running. This gets rid, at the same 

 time, of course, of all the natural moisture or liquor of the oyster, and the result is known as "solid" measm-ement. 



The payment for opening oysters is made at the rate of so much per gallon "solid" or "in liquor",-as agreed 

 upon; if the former, 12 cents is the usual i>rice the present season ; if the latter, 17 and 20 cents is demanded. From 

 $1 to $2 a day is earned while work lasts. The amount of difference between a gallon of oysters measured " solid " 

 and one measured "in the liquor", depends on the condition of the stock. It is the universal complaint this year, 

 that all Rhode Island mollusks are " opening poor"; that is, there is too much liquor and too little meat in the shells. 

 This is universally attributed to the fact that the present autumn (1879) has been very dry; more rain would have 

 made the oysters "fatter". At present it takes three liquor-gallons to make two solid ones, at their best; but in 

 some years the difference is almost nothing, and then the oystermen will say : " You couldn't press the meat back 

 into its own shell, after opening," so rich and elastic are the juicy bodies. 



Statistical recapitulation for Rhode Island: 



Number of ijlanters 100 



Number of lessees in 1879 50 



Extent of grouiifl cultivated acres.. 9()2 



Value of same (about) fllo.OilO 



Value of shore-property (about) f75, UUO 



Number of boats eugag(,'il 100 



Value of same, with outfit |20, 000 



Number of men hired by planters or dealers through the whole year 1.', 



Annual earnings of same ^Tf), 000 



Number of men hired half the year 3'i0 



Semi-annual earnings of same jSO, 000 



Number of families supported, exclusive of retail-trade, about 500 



Annual sales (Ij!!?!)) of — 



I. Native oysters bushels.. 148,200 



Value of same '. |205,.'')00 



II. Chesapeake "plants" bushels.. 274,;!00 



Value of same ,$;;00, 000 



III. Fancy stock bushels.. 1.5,000 



Value of same |;20, 000 



IV. Baltimore and Norfolk "opened stock" gallons.. 8, OoO 



Value of same ^5,000 



Value of oysters raised in Rhode Island, but owned elsewhere |;2fi0, 1100 



Total first value of all oysters produced in Narragausett bay, annually |6f^0, ')00 



