THE OYSTER-INDUSTRY. 65 



now and then patches of imul ; but over large areas extends only a smooth, unencumbered bottom of sand or gravel. 

 This makes this re.niou peculiarly adapted to oyster-culture. 



CoNFLTCTiNO CLAiJis OF PKOPUiETOiiSHiP IN OYSTERGROtTND. — This ncw departure, orunlookcdfor expansion 

 of the business, caused considerable excitement as it rapidly developed. It was soon seen, in the first place, that 

 the existing statutes, which never had contemplated this sort of thing, would not fit all the exigencies, and after 

 the codification of 180(5, alterations and ameuduients rapidly followed one another, in wliich the conflicting interests 

 of the deep-water cultivators and the small inshore-owners were sought to be harmonized or guarded against 

 opposition. Although recognized bj- law and acknowledged by clear heads since the earliest times, the rights of 

 proprietorship under the water, and the notion of property in the growth and iniiu-ovenient ensuing upon ground 

 granted and worked for oyster-culture, have hardly yet permeated the public mind and become generally accepted 

 facts. Cultivators of all grades found many and many instances in which their staked-out ground was reappropriated, 

 or the oysters, upon which they had spent a great deal of time and money, were taken by their neighbors even, who 

 angrily resented any imputation of steeling. Not uncommoidy the proceeding was much after the manner of mining 

 in a new gold or silver region, such as the Leadville district of Colorado, for instance, where prospectors "located 

 claims'' on top of one another, and all went to digging side by side, the first one to strike "mineral" having a 

 right to any or all of his rivals' territory, within stipulated limits. 



Having put some oysters on a piece of ground and found them to do well, a man would put in a claim for a 

 grant of that piece, and feel greatly abused because it had previously been designated to some man who knew that 

 the only proper or safe way was to get legal itossession of the ground first, and make a trial afterwards.* Then number 

 one would claim the right to remove his oysters, and in doing so would be sure to be charged by number two with 

 taking more than belonged to him. It was easy, too, for unscrupulous persons to dump' seed or large oysters upon 

 ground that they pretended not to know was already granted, and then, in taking their stuff away, to rake ui> a 

 large addition. 



If a man neglected to take out a title to his ground, or omitted any technicality, somebody stood always ready 

 to rob him of all the results of his work in open daylight, with the calmest effrontery. "All that is under water is 

 public property," was the maxim of the million, "unless every form of law is observed;" and unless it is watched 

 with a shot-gun besides, they might have added. An authentic incident that happened many years ago, will illustrate 

 this temper; ami I should not devote so m)ich attention to this matter, were it not that this false philosophy has 

 been almost universal ; has proved the greatest stumbling-block to the prosperity of efforts at oyster-culture along 

 this whole coast, and is almost ineradicable from the 'longshore mind. 



Two of the veterans of the native oyster-business at this point, were born and spent their boyhood on the shore, 

 and early became accustomed to the habits and haunts of all the fishes and mollusks. When they were lads of 

 seventeen they sought out a suitable place near the western shore, and gradually accumulated there an artificial bed 

 of native oysters, which soon attained a merchantable size. There were several hundreds of bushels, and the young 

 nuMi were congratulating themselves as fall approached, that upon the early completion of the engagements, which 

 then occupied their time, they would reap a rich harvest from their labor and patience. The time when they intended 

 to take them up was only a few days distant, and no harm by storm or otherwise had come to the bed, when one 

 morning they went out only to find that every oyster had disappeared ! It was a cruel disappointment, but 

 inquiry soon solved the riddle. In the darkness of the preceding night several teams, fully prepared for the work, 

 came down from miles and miles back in the country, from away up about Westville and Woodbridge and North 

 Orange, and their owners had raked up the whole bed, and carted it away to hide in their cellars. No robbery 

 could be plainer, and there was little attempt to secrete it; but there was no redress, and the perpetrators chuckled 

 over it as a good joke, without a scruple about the propriety of the thing. Nothing in the sea was private proi)erty. 



Legal ruoTECTioN for oyster-planters. — A vast amount of this sort of stealing and interference with 

 proprietary rights granted by the state, was perpetrated and sanctioned by the great majority of the watermen, 

 under the plea that the locality in question was "natural ground". Any definition or restriction of this ground 

 was impracticable and resisted. The only resource for the man who had invested money in oyster-culture, and 

 wanted the opportunity to develop his investment, was to declare that no "natural oj'ster-grouud " existed in New 

 Haven harbor, and that designations past and to come were valid, even though the areas so designated might once 

 have been natural oyster beds. This checkmated the men who "jumped claims", yet refused to be considered 

 thieves ; but it caused a tremendous howl against the movers, in which a large number of persons, having small 

 information of the facts, joined, on the general principle of " death to the capitalist". It may have worked discomfort 

 in a few individual cases, as all sweeping changes must, but on the whole, considering how nearly exhausted and 

 worthless the Quiuepiac fisheries had become, I think it must be regarded as not unjust. At any rate, the 

 legislature of 1875 jiassed an amendment exempting Orange, New Haven, and East Haven from the enactment 

 prohibiting the setting apart or "designation" of "natural oyster-beds" for purposes of planting or cultivation, 

 leaving, however, the law intact for the rest of the state. Had this measure not been passed, systematic cultiva- 



" Perhaps some excuse or explanation of this sore feeling is found in the fact, that the town of Branford allowed a man to apply for 

 and try a ciuantity of land a yoar ; at the expira'.iou he could pay for it or " heave it up", as ho thoiij;ht host. This was a purely local 

 regulatiou, however. 



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