THE OYSTER INDUSTRY OF NEW JERSEY. 475 



NAVESINK AND SHREWSBURY RIVERS. 



Shrewsbury Eiver is tlie general name frequently applied to the two 

 rivers designated on the charts of the U. S. Coast Survey as the Xave- 

 sink and Shrewsbury rivers, which empty their waters by a common 

 outlet into Sandy Hook Bay. The Navesink, or northern branch, is 

 known locally as the Shrewsbury, or North Shrewsbury, and the 

 Shrewsbury, or southern branch, as the South Shrewsbury. Oyster 

 cultivation is carried on in both rivers, but more extensively in the 

 Navesink or northern branch. 



Planting- grounds. — The extent of the planted area in these rivers can 

 not be definitely stated. In the Navesink the beds are located on both 

 sides of the riv^er, and frequently reach .across it, from the railroad 

 bridge at Red Bank (immediately above the town) to Claypit Creek, 

 just below Oceanic, a distance of about 4 miles. It is not probable 

 thqt more than 400 acres are utilized for oyster-planting. In the South 

 Shrewsbury the planting-grounds lie in the vicinity of Little Silver, 

 Oceanx)ort, and Branchjiort, and also in the locality known as Pleasure 

 Bay, a small indentation below Branchport. Their extent is small, and 

 the oyster business is conducted on a comparatively limited scale. 



The bottom in both branches of the river is usually soft mud, and is 

 in some localities covered with eelgrass. Xear the banks of the river, 

 Avhere there is more sand, the bottom is harder than it is farther off in 

 the bed of the stream, but the water is usually shallow. The softness 

 of the bottom is one of the greatest difficulties with which the planters 

 have to contend, as the oysters are liable to become submerged with 

 mud. There are no natnral oyster beds. 



Oyster-planting. — The season for planting oysters corresponds with 

 that in other localities already discussed, but the methods of cultiva- 

 tion vary in accordance with the natural conditions of the bottom. The 

 scarcity of hard bottom, in suflicient depth of water to allow the oysters 

 to remain safely tlu'ough the winter, precludes the practicability of 

 planting large quantities of seed oysters; consequently the greater part 

 of the oysters have to be of marketable size, or nearly so, when planted. 

 On the Navesink there is only one firm of planters who use small seed 

 extensively; the others, without exception, buy large oysters and plant 

 them in the spring and take them up for market in the fall. The plant- 

 ers claim that very little and perhaps nothing is gained in ciuantity by 

 the growth of the oysters; that while they increase in size individually 

 a great many of them die, and the increase from the one cause does not 

 more than offset the loss from the other. 



When small oysters are planted they are generally allowed to lie 

 three yetps, and are then shifted to hard bottom, which is found only in 

 narrow strips near the banks of the river in shoal water. This is done 

 in the spring, and in the fall of the same year they are taken, u}) for 

 market. 



A part of the oysters for planting are unculled stock Irom the natural 



