THE OYSTER INDUSTRY OF NEW JERSEY. 479 



The business is not so large as formerly, and the number of men 

 engaged in it is correspondingly reduced. At Little Silver and Ocean- 

 port it is not customary to hire help. The planters do the work them- 

 selves. On the Xavesink there are 32 men who are proprietors of 

 grounds and i)lant oysters. Some of them, however, do a very small 

 business. 



Boats. — The boats used in the oyster fishery are a su)all, square-stern, 

 flat-bottom, clinker-built row boat of the bateau kind. The largest of 

 them are 22 feet in length over all with an extreme width of 5 feet on 

 top, and have a carrying capacity of about 40 to 50 bushels of oysters. 

 Some of them are smaller, being not more than 19 feet in length. They 

 cost when new from $40 to 850. 



Marlceiing the oysters. — The oidy thing requisite in the preparation of 

 the oysters for market, after being caught, is to cull and grade them 

 into two sizes. The large ones are called " box oysters," and the small 

 ones "cullens" or "cullings." They are not placed in the brackish 

 water to drink as at Perth Amboy and Keyport, the waters of these 

 rivers not being considered sufficiently salt to render that process 

 necessary. 



Floats are used to some extent for keeping the oysters in good con- 

 dition while they are being prepared for market or held on hand await- 

 ing the buyer's orders. If the planter is not sui^plied with floats for 

 this purpose, tlie oysters are laid on the shore, in shoal water, until 

 required for shipment. 



The average price which the producers receive for box oysters is $8 

 and for cullens $4 per thousand. They are shipped in flour and sugar 

 barrels. A flour barrel will hold about 050 box oysters or 1,000 cullens 

 and a sugar barrel about 900 box or 1,200 cullens. Xew York is 

 the principal point of shipment, although a great many are marketed 

 within the State, especially during the summer when the hotels along 

 the coast are oi)en. The oysters are all sold in the shell, except at 

 Pleasure Bay, where about 3,000 to 4,000 bushels per ^jear are opened 

 and sold by the thousand, the greater part being sent^ by express to 

 Chicago. 



Two steamboats, running regularly in summer between Red Bank 

 and J^ew York, furnish means of transportation for about one-half of 

 the oyster products of the river, and the remainder are shipped by 

 rail. 



