184 THE MOLLUSK FISHERIES 



Newbury. 



The town of Newbury has in itself no shellfish industry, although 

 there is an extensive area of suitable flats which are worked with equal 

 rights by the Newburyport clammers. These flats comprise some 360 

 acres, and extend along both sides of Plum Island Sound and Parker 

 River. Over 100 acres of scattering clams occur, though not in suffi- 

 cient quantities for the most part to make very profitable digging. The 

 remainder, some 260 acres, though almost all suitable for the produc- 

 tion of large quantities of clams, is practically barren. 



The principal type of soil is mud, and the mud flats comprise about 

 250 acres. The flats of Parker River and those in its immediate neigh- 

 borhood, however, are largely sand, and altogether they aggregate about 

 110 acres. Of these, " the thoroughfare " is practically the only one 

 which furnishes clams in any quantity. Sections of the broad flats 

 which border on Plum Island Sound produce scattering clams of large 

 size. There is, however, no very good digging in town, and no con- 

 sistent effort seems ever to have been made to utilize the great wealth 

 which lies dormant in the clam flat territory. Six Newbury men dig 

 intermittently in the summer, and furnish some 300 bushels, worth 

 about $250, for town trade. However, this does not take into con- 

 sideration the amount taken from these flats by the Newburyport 

 clammers. 



SUMMARY OF INDUSTRY. 

 Number of men, .......... 6 



Capital invested, . . . $75 



Production, 1907 : 



Bushels, 300 



Value, . . v $ 250 



Total area (acres) : 



Sand, . . . . . . , 110 



Mud, 250 



Gravel, . . . . 



Mussels and eel grass, ........ 



Total, 360 



Productive area (acres) : 



Good clamming, ....'...... 



Scattering clams, ......... 100 



Barren area possibly productive (acres), . . . . . . 260 



Waste barren area (acres), . . . 



Possible normal production, . . . . ... . . $40,000 



Rowley. 



Rowley presents a more striking example of the decline in the shell- 

 fish industry than any other town in this region. 



Four hundred acres of good flats border Plum Island and Rowley 

 River within the town limits, but of these only 20 at most are econom- 

 ically productive. Eighty acres more are not entirely barren, though 



