THE OYSTER-INDUSTRY. 97 



emitted, may be carried up and down over the breadth of shells waiting to accommodate it, or by sprinkling spawners 

 all about the ground, at the rate of about 10 bushels to the acre. Under these arrangements the circumstances 

 must be rare and exceptional, when a full set v,^]l not be secured upon all shells within, say, 20 rods of the spawners. 

 Of course fortunate positions may be found where spawn is produced from wUd oysters in abundauce, or from 

 contiguous planted beds, where the distribution of special spawners is unnecessary; yet even then.it may be 

 said to be a wise measiire. 



The successful capture of a plenteous "set", however, is not all of the game. This must grow to salable 

 maturity before any profits can be gathered, and it so often happens that the most promising beds in September are 

 utterly wrecked by January, making a total loss of all the money and labor expended, that more than one planter 

 has decided that it does not pay to attempt to raise oysters upon shells, so long as he is able to buy and stock his 

 grounds with half-grown seed — a decision which may be based upon sound reasoning in respect to certain localities, 

 but which certainly will not apply to all of our northern coast. 



To what causes the well-filled artificial beds of infant oysters owe the destruction which seems often to overtake 

 them in a single night, cannot always be told ; we are not sufiicientlj^ acquainted either with the oyster or the 

 conditions under which he lives, to detect the fatal influence. It is easily perceived, however, that these propagation- 

 beds offer an unusual attraction to aU the active enemies of the oyster, such as winkles, drills or borers, and 

 starfishes, since they flud there food not only in a superabundance, but thin shelled and tender, so as to be got at 

 in the easiest manner. It has very frequently happened in the East river, that starfishes alone have not only eaten 

 up many acres of young oysters in a single season, on shelled ground, but so colonized there as to ruin utterly that 

 tract for any further use, so long as they remained. It is certain that the half grown transplanted seed is less 

 attractive to oyster-enemies than the propagation-beds ; but when, as frequently occurs, the latter survive misfortune 

 and attack, the yield of profits is so great as amply to compensate for the risk. Those who do not catch any or sufficient 

 seed for their purposes, upon areas of shells or other cultch, annually procirre young oysters of natural growth, or 

 " seed " with which to stock their beds. To this end they send their sloops from Norwalk eastward to the 

 Honsatonic beds, as has been described in a previous chapter, out into the sound off Bridgeport and to Shippen 

 point, while the more westerly planters get theu' seed in the East river and off the Long Island shore. There 

 seems to be little lack of supply, but the scene of good dredging and the amount gathered are continually changing. 

 On the whole, however, there is a decrease of supply brought about by the largely increased number of boats now 

 fishing every fall. IMore or less of the seed gathered here is sold by those who catch it, to local planters, and some 

 goes to beds in Ehode Island and New Tork bay, or the south shore of Long Island. On the contrary, some little 

 foreign seed, chiefly from the North river, is brought to Connecticut beds. The deep-water sound seed is the best. 

 The seed is not usually culled, but is sold to the iflanter at about 25 cents a bushel, and distributed upon his grounds 

 just as it is caught. In a bushel of it, consequently, not more than one-fourth (in a fair run) will consist of living 

 oysters, the remainder being dead shells and trash of aU sorts. Of this mixed stuff from 300 to 400 bushels are put 

 on an acre lot. If it were culled, even roughly, it would bring from 40 to 50 cents, and one-half the quantity would 

 be enough for the same ground, since the danger of planting too thick must be avoided. Frequently this is done. 

 Some planters here never disturb their beds until they begin to take them up for market ; but others make a 

 practice of shifting their transplanted oysters, when two or two and a half years old, to a new spot. There they lie 

 for one year, and are then ready for sale. The cost of shifting is from 10 to 15 cents a bushel ; but the increase, 

 both in size and flavor, is thought to compensate for this extra outlay. 



The great drawback to East river oyster-planting of every kind, is the abundance of enemies with which the 

 beds are infested. These consist of drum-fish, skates, and, to a small degree, of various other fishes ; of certain sponges 

 and invertebrates that do slight damage; and of various boring moUusks, the crushing winkle, and the insidious 

 starfish or sea-star. It is the last-named plague that the planter dreads the most, and the directly traceable harm 

 it does amounts to many tens of thousands of dollars annually in this district alone. Indeed, it seems to have here 

 its headquarters on the American oyster-coast ; but as I shall devote to it a special description in my chapter on the 

 Enemies of the Oyster, I will only mention here the fact of its baleful presence, which has utteily ruined many 

 a man's whole year's work. 



Destruction of East eiatsr oysters. — Nearly all the East river oysters are sold in the shell in New Tork. 

 Those from the Connecticut shore and City island are generally taken to the city in the sloops of the owners, and 

 sold to dealers at the foot of Broome sti-eet. This is partially true also of those raised on the Long Island shore; 

 but there the New York firms, themselves often co-planters with the countrymen, send boats to buy uj) cargoes 

 at the beds at a small. discount from city ijrices. 



35. PECONIC BAY, OR EASTERN LONG ISLAND. 



The eastern end of Long Island. — The whole extent of bays and inlets contained between the two 



promontories, Montauk and Orient, which terminate Long Island at its eastern end, is subdivided under several 



names, the principal being Gardner's, and Great and Little Peconic bays. Though this region is highly productive 



in respect to the swimming fishes, and to several kinds of edible mollusks, yet oysters are not commonly found 



7 o 



