582 MARINE PRODUCTS OF COMMERCE 



a matter of choice among individual clam diggers, and should vary from a right 

 angle to an angle of 60 degrees. In a few districts spading forks are used by the 

 clammers. The baskets used for holding the clams gathered by the diggers are 

 usually made of uniformly spaced lath so as to permit draining and easy washing. 

 Inasmuch as the dry digging of clams is possible only between tides, the work 

 lasts only a few hours at a time. Usually from 1 to 4 bushels of clams are gath- 

 ered, but this amount varies widely with different individuals and with the abim- 

 dance of the clams. 



Clams are either marketed in the shell or "shucked out." In either case they 

 must be carefully washed. Small clams suitable for steaming are ordinarily shipped 

 to market in the shell, as are also the fine-appearing sand clams. The unprepos- 

 sessing mud clams and the very large clams are usually shucked by removing the 

 shell and the external covering of the siphon or neck. A bushel of clams produces 

 about 7 quarts of shucked clams. Shucked clams readily absorb a considerable 

 quantity of fresh water; after soaking for about 6 hours they increase in volume 

 about a third. Consequently, the shucked clams are soaked before being marketed. 

 In addition to increasing their bulk the soaking process plumps the clam meats. 



The clams shipped in the shell are usually packed in second-hand flour and 

 sugar barrels, while shucked clams are usually shipped in kegs or butter tubs. 

 The chief markets for soft clams are Boston, New York, Baltimore, and Philadel- 

 phia. 



Hard Clam. Inasmuch as the quahog clam was considered inferior in quality 

 to the soft clam, little attention was given to it commercially until about the be- 

 ginning of the nineteenth century. But the hard-clam fishery did not become of 

 great importance until the beginning of the twentieth century when the popular 

 demand for "littlenecks" or the small quahog clams spurred production to the 

 limit of the natural clam resources. 



There are two types of quahog fisheries on the Atlantic Coast— the deep sea 

 and the shallow water; the former is by far the most productive. 



The quahog fishery of the Atlantic Coast is located chiefly in Massachusetts, 

 Rhode Island, New York, North Carolina, and Florida. Quahogs occur, however, 

 all along the Atlantic Coast, from Massachusetts to Florida, and along the coast 

 of the Gulf of Mexico. The chief centers of the industry in Massachusetts are 

 Chatham, Eastham, Edgartown, Fairhaven, Orleans, Wareham, and Wellfleet. 

 The culture of quahogs is carried on chiefly in Orleans, Eastham, and Wellfleet. 

 The quahog fishery is an important industry in Long Island Sound and in the 

 various Long Island bays, notably Great South Bay. The North Carolina clam 

 industry is centered in Brunswick, Carteret, New Hanover, and Pender counties. 

 There are still great beds of these clams in the south that have never been dis- 

 tiirbed. Many beds are found along the shores in the Gulf States, but they are dug 

 commercially only on the west coast of Florida. 



The Indians obtained their hard clams by the primitive method of "treading"; 

 the "treader" finds the clams by wading about barefoot in the shallow water, 

 feeling with his toes in the soft mud for the quahogs, and then picking them up 

 by hand. The early settlers soon learned more rapid ways of gathering shellfish. 

 Some quahogs are obtained by raking them out of the mud on the exposed tidal 

 flats by means of short rakes or hoes. Because of the scarcity of hard clams be- 

 tween the tide lines this method is now chiefly employed by fishermen seeking 



