100 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



A supervisor is appointed, who has charge of the letting of groiind, in lots of one acre, to each male applicant 

 of age, who is a resident of the town. The supervisor inspects the ground to see that it is not " a natural bed ", 

 l)laces it upon his map, looks after its proper staking-out, and collects a personal fee for his services. The owners 

 of oyster-grounds then pay to the town $1 a year rent per acre, and pay taxes upon their lioating i^ersonal property 

 engaged in the business, and upon oysters admitted to be upon their ground. In addition to this, every man, 

 cultivator or not, who wishes to wield oyster-tongs on Brookhaven oj'ster- grounds, must pay $1 a year license-fee to 

 the town for the privilege. This fee is known by the curious name "toleration", and it arose in this way: When 

 the town ordered that every citizen might hold a lot, upon the conditions outlined above, it meant that no person 

 should hold more than one. If, however, A got the use of B's name, and so acquired the control of two or more lots, 

 uo one objected. The theory was that every man worked his o^m lot; but soon men began catching seed-oysters in 

 Bellport bay, around Smith's point, and elsewhere, and selling to the planters, who paid from 25 to 40 cents a bushel. 

 In order to derive a revenue from this also, the town therefore ordered a "toleration-fee" of $1, to be paid by every 

 man who handled a rake. In the fiscal year 1879-'80 these license-fees amounted to $371 50, while the rental of 

 oyster-ground in Brookhaven during the same time was $1,056 ; total receipts of the town, $1,427 50, of which " the 

 j)oor" got one-half. Any seeming lack of sufQciency in the amount of the toleration-fees must be charged to the fact, 

 that many, no doubt, took advantage of the custom of commuting for the fee, by throwing upon the public ground 

 eight or ten bushels of seed, pro bono puhlico. 



Kesteictions of OYSTEE-FisniNG BY TOWN-LAWS OF BROOKHAVEN. — The Stated restrictions placed by the 

 town upon oysteriug are: that no dredging shall be done; no oyster-raking at night, nor between June 15 and 

 October 1 ; and that no one not a citizen of Brookhaven shall be allowed to rake in her waters, or any person take 

 or dispose of any oysters to be transidanted elsewhere. These regulations, being considered by those inside onlj- as 

 protective measiu-es due to themselves, and being branded as an illegal and iinkiud selfishness and monopoly by 

 those outside, have naturally caused considerable conflict between the oystermen of Brookhaven and their neighbors — 

 a large part of the town of I slip, separated from Brookhaven before the full value of the oyster-bottom of the bay was 

 appreciated. Brookhaven now claims that the water o])posite Eastern Islip was not granted to Islip at the time of 

 the sejiaratiou, and that she retains control of it. To this Eastern Islip objects, and, with an additional reason, 

 claims, with Western Islip, Babylon, and the state at large, the free right of Brookhaven waters. Brookhaven offers 

 to let Eastern Islip men, in consideration of the old connection, rake with her own citizens, by pajdng a toleration- 

 fee of $2, and anybody else for a fee of $3. This is paid by few or none, and Islip brought suit, which has long been 

 jiending, intended to break the monopoly. Meanwhile she and all the rest steal as much seed as jjossible — nearly 

 all they need, in fact — from Brookhaven waters, the evidence required by the law being so very definite that they 

 run small risk, even if caught, of being proved gnilty in court. At the same time Islip and Babylon procured 

 legislation authorizing the leasing of the bay-bottom in four-acre i)lots to citizens of those towns, for the purjiose of 

 planting oysters thereon, and it was made a misdemeanor for non-residents to tong oysters in any of the waters 

 within their jurisdiction. This exclusion was a matter of indifference to everybody acquainted with the fact that 

 no seed-beds of value existed in either town to temi^t non-resident tongers. Brookhaven is now endeavoring to get 

 aid from the state in securing to itself more protection. At a late town meeting one trustee made the astonishing 

 statement, that during the spawning-season three thousand tubs of seed are weeklj' stolen from the bay and 

 transplanted in the protected beds in other waters, those of Connecticut included. "As the seed is worth $1 a tub, 

 the injury to the oyster-interests in Brookhaven is readily seen. While the oyster planters of other towns are 

 growing rich, those of Brookhaven are being made poor, and the time to seek protection was while something 

 remained that was worth pocketing." One speaker said he controlled several hundred acres of excellent oyster- 

 bottom, but was prevented from utilizing it by the dei>rcdations of non-residents; at which the said nonresidents 

 grinned with saturnine glee. What will be the residt of the struggle between exclusion and free-raking, remains 

 to be seen. 



Brookhaven bay or '^Blue Point" oysters. — Having thus stated the conditions and regulations under 

 which oyster-culture exists in the Great South bay, let us turn to a consideration of the natural supply there, the 

 methods of artificial increase, and the results in market-produce and active prosperity. 



The natural, original growth of oysters in this sound, as I have already stated, is confined almost wholly between 

 Smith's point and Fire island — practically to the waters east of Blue Point, known as Brookhaven bay. This was 

 the home of the famous celebrity, the Blue Point oyster, which was among the earliest to come to New York 

 markets. The present oyster of this brand is small and round; but the old "Blue Points", cherished by the Dutch 

 burghers and peaked-hatted sons of the Hamptons, who toasted the king long before our Eevolution was thought 

 of, was of the large, crooked, heavy-shelled, elongated kind with which one becomes familiar all along the coast 

 in examining relics of the natural beds, and which even now are to be found by the thousand in all the mussel- 

 lagoons of the gulf of Saint Lawrence. Now and then, a few years ago, one of these aboriginal oysters, of which 

 two dozen made a sufiicient armful, was dragged up and excited the curiosity of every one; but the time has gone 

 by when any more of these monsters may be expected. 



In 1853 the New Yorlc Herald reported that the value of all the Blue Point oysters, by which name the Great 



