THE OYSTER-INDUSTRY. 141 



Dennis township contains Dennis creek and West creek on its Delaware side, both of which abound in a natural 

 growth of oysters every year, and in neither of which, consequently, is there any planting, more than perhaps a little 

 desultory " laying out" in tributary creeks for private use. The laws of 18.57 forbade dredging for oysters in Dennis 

 creek, and forbade auy taking of oysters from natural beds there "to be sold outside of Cape May county", with au 

 especial injunction against non-residents. The natural oysters caught there grow in the mud, iu a crowded condition, 

 and hence are long, slender, and strap-shaped. They get the name " Stnckups " in consequence. Their shells are weak 

 and thin, because of an absence of carbonate of lime in the soil of the surrounding region. The water here is veiy 

 fresh ; but the best of the full-grown oysters are annually peddled about the neighborhood, and regarded as of 

 sui^ei-ior quality as a fresh oyster. 



The business, then, of this district, comprised in these two townships, lies in the sounds and thoroughfares on 

 the eastern shore, between the mainland and the outer (Peck's and Ludlam's) beaches. The bottoms of these sounds 

 are muddy — some tough, some soft — except upon the bars, which are hard sand. The ordinary depth at low water 

 is less than two feet, while the bars go dry every tide. Oysters are planted in both places, but chiefly on the mud. 

 The seed used all the way from Towusend's inlet to Great Egg Harbor, is for the most part gathered in that harbor 

 and its rivers. The price varies greatly. Planters used to give 45 cents a bushel, and got a heaping half-barrel for 

 measure. In 1S79 they paid 37 cents, measured in a scant basket, and this year the price has been 40 cents on the 

 grounds, with 5 to 7 cents freight to be added. This is the year-old and larger clean seed, known locally as "plants"; 

 the small "blisters" being little used here, since they never do well, nine- tenths of them failing to survive the winter. 



Nearly every man who lives along the shore is more or less concerned in the oyster-planting, yet as a regular 

 business it is hardly more than ten years old. My informant counted 30 planters along the eastern water-front of 

 the two townships, but not all of them depend upon oystering for even a majority of the support of their families. 

 There are none, indeed, but who also conduct a farm ; many are concerned in the fisheries, others employed half 

 the year at the life-saving stations, and another portion spend the summer-leisure in raking clams. A large crop 

 is not, therefore, to be expected from this coast, and it is estimated as follows : 



Two planters raise 1,500 bushels 3,000 



Four planters raise 600 busbols — 2, 400 



Twenty-four planters raise 300 busbcls 7, 200 



12, 600 



The ])lanting of southern stock has not, as a rule, been profitable in this district. It is considered better policy 

 to wait longer for the more hardy but slow-growing Egg Harbor plants, than to risk the easily killed, tender but 

 more rapidly-matured, Chesapeakes. Although the original expense of planting the northern oysters is largely iu 

 excess of that of the southern stock, the price received is larger in market at the end, and the risk of loss far less. 

 Yet every few years some adventurous spirit makes a success of his southern importations, and wins very large profits. 

 This chance is alluring, and a thousand or fifteen hundred bushels are brought up every year from Virginia. 



All of the oysters raised here go to Philadelphia by rail. They are iirepared for market by the usual freshening 

 on platforms at ebb-tide, and bring high prices. This season (18S0) from $4 25 to $5 a barrel have been received 

 by the shippers, who paid the small planters $3 30 at the shore, or $3 50 delivered in barrels at the railway station. 

 The fieight into the city is 40 cents, with an added 10 cents for cartage. 



Early oystek-business op Cape May county. — Before the railway was put here all the oysters (chiefly 

 natural growth) were sent to Philadelphia and New York by water. From the diary of Jacob Spicer, quoted in 

 Dr. Maurice Beesley's JSarly History of Cape May County (Geol. Surv. of N. J., 1857), occurs the following item : 



There is at least ten boats belongiug to the county which carry oysters; and admit they make three trips fall and three trijis spring, 

 each, and carry 100 bushels each triii, that makes 6,000 bushels, at what they neat '2s. per bushel, £000. 



Six hundred pounds sterling was about $3,000 ; now the annual resources of the county iu oysters approach 

 $00,000 in value, and the shipping involved on the ocean shore of the county alone, consisting of a dozen small 

 vessels in the Chesapeake carrying-trade, and perhaps 40 sail-boats for local service on the beds, are worth not less 

 than $30,000. A portion of this wealth, however, remains to be accounted for. 



Oyster-fleex op the Bridgetown district. — The custom-house of the district is at Bridgeton, and the 

 collector has taken the trouble to furnish me with a complete list of the vessels oystering and registered in his ofiBco 

 in 1880. The district comprises all the coast from the Tuckahoe river, Cape May county, around to Alloway's creek, 

 in Salem county, and the list is as annexed : 



OYSTER-VESSELS REGISTERED AT BRIDGETON. 



SCHOONERS. 



Name. Tods. Name. Tone. Name. Tons. 



A. S. Mulford 24.81 Arctic 34.32 D.C.Adams 29.!J9 



AliceC.Ogden 34.39 Calvin Dilks 25.62 D. P. Mulford 27.00 



Alice M. Ridgway 26.03 Caroline H. Me.ars 32.06 Dove 22.20 



Almedia 21. .51 Cashier 24.49 E. Fowler 33.85 



Annie C. Moore 27.27 Charter 22.64 Edna M. Lore 33.71 



Anna Mary Newcomb 20.11 Cecelia B. Sheppard 29.98 Elanora 33.23 



Amanda B. Lore 21.30 Dawning Light 22.67 Elizabeth B 21.78 



