78 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Eavages of starfishes and thieves. — As yet starfislies have not proved a resistless enemy to tbe outer 

 beds, although individuals have suflercd great harm through their ravages in isolated cases. There are not so 

 many rocks and hiding places for them here as exist in the western part of tlie state, which may account for the 

 present partial immunity. It is feared, nevertheless, that continued planting will cause a gradual increase of the 

 plague, since elsewhere starfishes have increased in proportion to the expansion of the planting. A greater obstacle 

 to success here is the liability of the bottom to move in gales and bury or scatter the beds. The drawback from 

 thieving has already been touched upon. This nuisance has been greatly abated, and a much healthier imblic 

 sentiment prevails, but there still remain lawless men who will watch their chance to jjush out from some cove, or 

 come in from the sound, and steal the bivalves. Hence a watchtower has been built at Long Wharf, in Jfew 

 Haven, in which a man is kept night and day. Another is built on the flats that run put from the West Haven 

 shores. Still others are kept off the Light- House point, and at a point off Branford harbor. The oyster-planters 

 share the expense of such provisions for keeping their property from thieves, each paying according to the amount 

 he has at stake. 



Quality of oysters in 1879-'S0. — The present season (1879-80) the native oysters grown in all parts of 

 river and habor, especially in the neighl)orhood of Morris cove, are of very unusually poor quality. I have heard 

 suggested but one plausible explanation of this. Dvu-ing July and August, 1879, a series of heavy inland storms 

 occurred, and the Quinepiac and its tributaries were swollen with successive freshets; as a consequence, the water 

 of the harbor, throughout its whole extent, was so roily that in place of its accustomed purity it was thick and brown 

 for weeks together; it does not seem improbable that such an unusual condition not only proved fatal to the spawn 

 in all parts of the harbor, as something certainly did, for no set was obtained, but cut off also the food of the adult 

 oysters to such an extent that they were unable to recuperate from the long fast. The fact that oysters will "fat 

 up" in a day, under good circumstances, is opposed to this theory, which is worth only so much as a suggestion. 



31. OTSTER-CULTUEE AT MILFOED. 



History of Milford as a fishing town. — Leaving New Haven, the first stoppage for oyster-studies is at 

 Milford, one of the most interesting and beautiful places in the state. It was settled in 1639, and long ago had an 

 extensive West India trade and ship-building industry. The business in that line declined forty years ago. The gulf, 

 harbor, and estuaries have always been more or less prolific of shellhsh. Milford long-clams have a good 

 reputation. Milford point, at the mouth of the Housatonic river, was a famous oystering place many years ago. 

 Old citizens remember a row of huts, built of wreckage and covered with banks and thatching of sea- weed, which 

 used to border this wild beach. In these huts lived fifty or sixty men, who made here their home during a greater 

 or less part of the year, and devoted themselves to clam-digging aud oyster-raking. Many of these men, who 

 were utterly poor, thus got together the beginnings of a fortune, which, invested in active agriculture, placed 

 them among the most influential inhabitants. But for the last thirty or forty years such sea-industries as these 

 have been declining, until nothing whatever was done on the water by Milford people, except the catching of 

 menhaden, for the utilization of which two large factories have been built. 



Experiments of Mr. William H. Merwin.— About eight years ago, however, Mr. William H. Merwin, 

 knowing what had been done about New Haven, began his valuable experiments in cultivating native oysters. 

 He and some others had once before started an enterprise of raising oysters in the "Gulf pond" at the mouth of 

 the Indian river. But the other stockholders, being older men, disregarded his advice, though he had always lived 

 by the shore, and the effort failed. They insisted upon damming the river, so that the sediment brought down by 

 the stream was deposited upon and smothered the oysters. It is this episode that gave rise to section 10 of the 

 oyster-statute. 



Eight years ago Mr. Merwin resolved to try oyster-planting for himself. He took up a few acres off the shore 

 in water 8 feet deep at low tide. He had just got his oysters well planted and had high hopes of success, when a 

 storm destroyed them all. His labor and money got no return but costly experience. He then tried again, further 

 out toward the sea, in IS feet depth of water, near the government buoy. He got so heavy a set, and his young 

 stock grew so well, that he estimated his crop at 10,000 bushels. Cultivators from Providence aud Boston came 

 down and bargained with him to take it all about the middle of April, but the last of March there came a gale 

 which drifted so much sand upon the oysters that they had not strength, after the severe winter, to "spit it out", 

 and before they could be takeu up so many died that only 3,000 bushels were sold. There had been an inmionse 

 excitement over the seeming success of oyster-culture ; a joint stock company had been formed and the whole harbor 

 taken up ; but this storm put an end to the enthusiasm, and everybody, except Mr. Merwin aud his two sons, 

 retreated. Mr. Merwin, however, saw that the trouble lay in the shallowness of the water. He therefore went 

 down to Pond point, eastward of the harbor, and buoyed off 200 acres in water from 25 to 40 feet deep, uiion a 

 hard, gravelly, and sandy bottom. He i)laced upon this ground a quantity of full-grown oysters and shells aud 

 secured a large set, which has been angineutcd each jear since, until he now has 100 acres under cultivation. In 

 1877 there was a veiy heavy set hereabouts; in 1878 less, aud in 1879 least of all. 



