THE OYSTER-INDUSTRY. 85 



A good day's earnings for an oyster-opener at Fair Haven is $1 50; this, of course, is often exceeded, but tlie 

 books of one firm showed nie that tlie average wages for a whole season was only about $20 per month. It very 

 frerjuently happens that no work is done at one or another establishment for several days, or only a little opening 

 each day. Hence about 350 openers serve the whole business by moving around. Men, as a rule, earn more than 

 women. 



In regard to the population supported by the oyster-business in this neighborliood, I find it extremely difficult 

 to get accurate statistics. It is a variable and partial (piantity. I estimate the number of principals— planters, 

 dealers, and shippers in and about New Haven— at 125 ; of laborers (men), at 135 ; and of openers (chiefly women), 

 at 340. 



Packing and shipment of oysters. — As soon as the oysters are opened they are placed in a flat pan with 

 a perforated bottom, called a skimmer, where they are drained of their accompanying liquor. From time to time 

 a quantity is dipped out and put into a large colander, or conical basin with perforated bottom and sides, 

 which is placed over a tall cask. Here a stream of water is turned upon them, and they are stirred about until 

 washed clca)i, after which they are put into wooden tubs for shipment, or tin cans for local traffic. The tubs are 

 all labeled with the name of the owner, and are returned by the customer. Their covers fit with exactness, and 

 lock with rivet and seal in such a way that they cannot be opened on the road without certain discovery. 



The expressage of oysters from Fair Haven to the interior of New England is so large that the afternoon ti'ains 

 have one car, and sometimes two cars, devoted exclusively to the carriage of these goods. Large shijiments 

 were formerly made in wagons to Albany and thence westward, especially to the large towns in central New York. 

 Now these oysters go by rail, of course, but also much farther westward, even to Cincinnati, Chicago, and San 

 Francisco. 



Statistical hecapitulation fok New Haven hakboe, Connecticut : 



Number of planters, wholesale-dealers, and shippers 135 



Extent of ground cultivated acres 2,600 



Value of shore i>roperty |100, 000 



Number of vessels and sail-boats engaged : 



Steamers 2 



Sail-boats 100 



Eow-boats 150 



252 



Value of same, about |30, 000 



Number of men hired by planters or dealers 200 



Annual earnings of same $50, 000 



Number of women hi red 275 



Annual earnings of same |30, 000 



Total number of families supported, about 400 



Annual sales of — 



I. Native oysters bushels 1^8,250 



Value of same $130,000 



II. Chesapeake "plants" bushels.... 450,000 



Value of same $350,000 



Total value of oysters sold annually - $480, 000 



G. THE HOUSATONIC AND SAUGATUCK REGIONS. 



33. OYSTEE-FISHERIBS OF BEIDGEFOET AND WBSTPOET. 



Natural beds and seed oysters.— Having passed to the westward of New Haven and Milford harbors, we 

 come upon a new feature of the oyster-business. This is the systematic dredging of natural beds in the sound and 

 along the inlets of the shore, for seed to be placed upon the artificial beds in the eastern part of the sound, in the 

 East ri\er, and on the south shore of Long Island. This department of the business will demand more and more 

 attention, as I progress toward its headquarters at Norwalk. The most easterly natural bed which these dredgers 

 •attack is one ott' Clark's point, just east of the mouth of Oyster river. (In Oyster river itself, by the way, no oysters 

 have ever been known, within the memory of tradition, although that name appears in a map drawn prior to 1700.) 

 The next natural bed consists of a reef, five acres in extent, on the western side of Pond point. Beyond that, off 

 Milford point, at the mouth of the Housatonic, lies the Pompey bed, which aflorded sustenance to the sea-hut colony 

 that used to frequent Milford point, and where now a crop can be gathered about once in five years. 



