Conditions in the Northern Field 201 



An important question arises in the mind as one views 

 the field of this industry that has become so extensive. 

 Are these cultivated acres owned by many as on the land ? 

 or have the smaller holdings been merged into large ones ? 

 Is the business of such a nature that the modern in- 

 dustrial method of combination may be profitable to it? 

 A citizen of Maryland or Louisiana, where the fear of 

 an oyster monopoly has been a consuming one, might 

 be interested in the answer. 



There has been a merging of holdings, and on a large 

 scale, over the entire northern field. In Connecticut, for 

 example, 338 persons owned 68,000 acres of oyster land 

 outside the town districts in 1893. Eleven years later, 

 in 1904, the area had decreased somewhat, being 66,000 

 acres. It was owned by 180 individuals and companies. 

 The number of owners had thus decreased nearly one- 

 half. It is now somewhat smaller than in 1904, and 

 the number of acres is larger. Some of these companies 

 hold very large tracts, owning and leasing bottoms in 

 more than one state. One, for example, controls 13,000 

 acres in Connecticut, 5,000 in New York, and more than 

 4,000 in Rhode Island — a total of more than 22,000 

 acres. This being true, it may appear that the northern 

 oyster field is perhaps already in the hands of a few 

 great corporations, and that the poor man can have little 

 part in the industry except as an employee. 



But this is not the whole truth. There is another fact 

 that completely reverses such a conclusion. Not only 

 are there a great number of small holdings within the 

 limits of towns, but even in the sound, more than one- 

 sixth of the holdings are of less than fifteen acres — some 

 of them but two or three acres — and they are owned and 

 planted by " the poor man," who conducts his business 



