154 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Number of vessels partially engaged 100 



Number of men hired by planters or dealers 1,915 



Annual earnings of same $614,000 



Number of sailors employed on Chesapeake vessels 400 



Annual earnings of same $30, 000 



Total number of families supported, about 2,000 



Annual sales ot^ — 



I. Native oysters bushels.. 1,900,000 



Value of same $1,925,000 



II. Chesapeake "plants" bushels.. (i.00, 000 



Value of same $500,000 



Total value of oysters sold annually $2,425,000 



K OYSTER-INTERESTS OF PHILADELPHIA. 



44. THE MERCHANTS AND OYSTER-BUSINESS OF PHILADELPHIA. 



Philadelphia as an otstee -center. — It will ali-eacly have impressed itself upon the mind of the reader, 

 that this whole region is dependent ni)on Philadelphia for its market, and hence, for a large i^art f)f the capital 

 employed in carrying on the daily operations of the business. The city of Philadelphia, therefore, takes a 

 prominent position as an oyster-center, and deserves a careful survey. Yet here, more even than in New York, is 

 the business centered and compact ; or else it acts simply as a silent partner — a power behind the throne — iu so 

 many operations that have already been described in the review of Delaware bay, that little remains to be said 

 except barren statistics condensed into small space. 



The region directly tributary to Philadelphia as a marketing point, extends from Barnegat around to and 

 including the whole of Delaware bay ; and it yields two millions and a half bushels annuallj", one quarter of which, 

 probably, are transplanted from the Chesapeake seed-grounds. 



Transpoetation and its statistics. — The transportation to the city from New York and the Atlantic 

 coast of New Jersey is by rail, as also to some extent from the Delaware bay shore of the same state. This supply 

 is carried almost whoUy by three railways, the various sub lines of the Pennsylvania cori)oration, the New Jersey 

 Central, and the Philadelphia and Atlantic City narrow-guage road. Railway statistics, in all cases, were given 

 me without hesitation by officers of the roads. The combined receipts reported by these roads for 1870-80, from 

 New York and New Jersey, amounts to nearly 300,000 bushels, counting somewhere near 70,000,000 oysters. These 

 cargoes weighed over 12,000,000 pounds, and gave an income to the roads aggregating over $27,000. By steamers 

 from Baltimore, Norfolk, and Chesapeake landings, there were brought nearly 20,000 busliels, or perhaps 0,000,000 

 oysters, while the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore railway eclipsed all other lines, by reporting receipts 

 for Philadelphia (including Southwark and Gray's Ferry) of 182,980 bushels in shell, and 70,000 gallons of shucked 

 oysters. For these figTires I am indebted to Mr. Charles K. Ide, master of transportation. Adding these two 

 sums, on the basis that a gallon is equal to a bushel, and that each wiU contain (of such stock as this road 

 transports) an average of 300 oysters, we find that 71,000,000 oysters is the number annually brought .to the city, 

 by this line alone, every year. The net revenue derived from this freight iu 1879-80, by this road, approached 

 $30,000, while as much more accrued to its treasury from other carriage of oysters not coming within the scope of 

 the present inquiry. 



Coming by sail-vessel from the eastern shore of Delaware bay, I find about one and a half million bushels 

 yeai'ly, while the western shore of the bay produces nearly another million bushels, a large i>art of which are 

 southern oysters transplanted to those beds. Lastly, in winter, about 250,000 bushels are taken by sailing-vessels 

 through the canal from the Chesapeake to Philadelphia, for immediate use. A summation of the supplies from 

 all these sources gives as the total quantity annually handled in Philadelphia, as shown by the statistics of 1879 

 and 1880, to be in the close neighborhood of 2,680,000 bushels, or more than 800,000,000 oysters, worth, iu round 

 numbers, not less than 82,500,000 at wholesale. 



Distributing trade. — But, of course, only a portion of these oysters are consumed within the limits of the 

 city of Philadelphia. A large part is distributed widely throughout a region which includes the Delaware valley, 

 the state of Pennsylvania, and to some extent the West, where Philadelphia competes in the shell-trade with New 

 York and Baltimore. The Pennsylvania railway, for instance, reports that nearly 60,000 bushels went to Pittsburgh 

 and intermediate stations, in 1879. Pittsburgh becouies, thus, a distributing point for its neighborhood, augmenting 

 this stock by large receipts from Baltimore and New York. Philadelijliia sends to New York and intermediate 

 points, by the same railway, more than 100,000 bushels, and Camden distributes ten or fifteen thousand bushels iu 

 western New Jersey. There remains the draught made by the express couq)anies and various railroads, from whom 

 there is no report. To have ascertained, with couq)lete exactness, the proportion of this two and a half millions of 

 bushels which is sent out again, and consequently the proporlion which is left to be consumed here, would have 

 required weeks of time and needless trouble. But from all that I can gather in the way of data, I believe that tho 

 city of Philadelphia and its large suburbs, which together contain 1,000,000 people, will cousume auuually an equal 



