212 THE FACE OF THE FIELDS 



love of ease and one's willing dependence. To be- 

 gin with, the clam farm is self- working, ploughed, 

 harrowed, rolled, and fertilized by the tides of the 

 sea; the farmer only sowing the seed and digging 

 the crop. Sometimes even the seed is sown for 

 him by the hands of the tide ; but only on those 

 flats that lie close to some natural breeding-bar, 

 where the currents, gathering up the tiny floating 

 "spats," and carrying them swiftly on the flood, 

 broadcast them over the sand as the tide recedes. 

 While this cannot happen generally, still the 

 clam-farmer has a second distinct advantage in 

 having his seed, if not actually sown for him, at 

 least grown, and caught for him on these natural 

 breeding-bars, in such quantities that he need only 

 sweep it up and cradle it, as he might winnow 

 grain from a threshing floor. In Plum Island 

 Sound there is such a bar, where it seems that 

 Nature, in expectation of the coming clam farm, 

 had arranged the soil of the bar and the tidal cur- 

 rents for a natural set of clam-spats to supply the 

 entire state with its yearly stock of seed. 



With all of this there is little of romance about 

 a clam farm, and nothing at all spectacular about 

 its financial returns. For clams are clams, whereas 



