OF MASSACHUSETTS. 27 



law absolutely refuses any protection to the shellfish culturist, Massa- 

 chusetts can never restock her barren flats and re-establish her shell- 

 fisheries until this law is modified to meet the changed conditions. 



(6) Who are the Objectors? Objectors to any new system are al- 

 ways found, and are not lacking in the case of shellfish culture. These 

 would immediately raise the cry that the public is being deprived of 

 its rights. To-day the public has fewer rights than ever. The present 

 law causes class distinctions, and a few are benefited at the expense of 

 the public. The industrious fisherman suffers because a few of the 

 worthless, unenterprising class, who have no energy, do not wish others 

 to succeed where they cannot. In every seacoast town in Massachusetts 

 the more enlightened fishermen see clearly that the only way to preserve 

 the shellfisheries is to cultivate the barren areas. 



Hon. B. F. "Wood, in his report of the shellfisheries of New York, in 

 1906, clearly states the case. 1 



There is, unfortunately, in some of the towns and villages upon our coast 

 an unprogressive element, composed of those who prefer to reap where they 

 have not sown ; who rely upon what they term their " natural right " to rake 

 where they may choose in the public waters. They deplete, but do not build 

 up. They think because it may be possible to go out upon the waters for a 

 few hours in the twenty-four (when the tide serves) and dig a half peck of 

 shellfish, that it is sufficient reason why such lands should not be leased by 

 the State to private planters. It might as well be said that it is wrong for 

 the government to grant homestead farms to settlers, because a few black- 

 berries might be plucked upon the lands by any who cared to look for them. 



The following is taken from the report of the Massachusetts Com- 

 missioners on Fisheries and Game for 1906 : 3 



There are at least four distinct classes within our Commonwealth, each 

 of which either derive direct benefits from the mollusk fisheries of our 

 coast, or are indirectly benefited by the products of the flats: 



(1) The general public, the consumers, who ultimately pay the cost, 

 who may either buy the joint product of the labor and capital invested 

 in taking and distributing the shellfish from either natural or artificial 

 beds, or who may dig shellfish for food or bait purposes for their own 

 or family use. 



(2) The capitalist, who seeks a productive investment for money or 

 brains, or both. Under present laws, such are practically restricted to 

 distribution of shellfish, except in the case of the oyster, where capital may 

 be employed for production as well, an obvious advantage both to capi- 

 tal and to the public. 



(3) The fishermen, who, either as a permanent or temporary vocation, 

 market the natural yield of the waters; or, as in the case of the shellfish- 

 eries, may with a little capital increase the natural yield and availability by 

 cultivating an area of the tidal flats after the manner of a garden. 



1 New York Shellfish Report, p. 7. 2 Report on the Shellfisheries, pp. 33-35. 



