Implements and Their Uses 133 



work upon the property without greater restrictions than 

 are placed on the farmer who is allowed to cut his grain 

 with a reaper. This seems like common sense and com- 

 mon justice, but there are still those who are strongly 

 prejudiced against the use of the dredge. 



But the old conditions are fast passing. There was 

 too often just cause for complaint against the use of the 

 dredge when state laws set apart some natural beds for 

 the use of tongers only, and others for dredgers. But 

 now that any citizen, in most states, may lease or buy 

 bottoms in deep or shallow water, to which he confines 

 his operations, and in which he is supposed to have the 

 protection of the state, he should be allowed to handle 

 his own crop as he chooses, so long as he injures the 

 property of no one else by so doing. 



The implement is very simple in construction. In the 

 foreground of Figure 31, a dredge is shown lying on the 

 deck of a North Carolina dredging boat. It consists of 

 a rectangular iron frame from the corners of which 

 rods lead forward and join at a distance of about three 

 feet from the frame. The towing rope is attached at this 

 point. Fastened all around the frame is a sack con- 

 structed of iron rings which is dragged behind it. The 

 lower side of the frame that rests on the bottom, is 

 sometimes provided with teeth that turn the oysters up- 

 ward into the sack. 



The size of the dredge varies greatly. The one just 

 referred to is about three feet wide, and probably weighs 

 about thirty pounds. This is near the minimum size. In 

 Chesapeake Bay such dredges are employed on boats 

 having a capacity of from three to four hundred bushels. 

 On larger boats dredges more than five feet wide are 

 used. These weigh about one hundred pounds and will 



