THE CLAM FARM 209 



demonstrating convincingly that a clam-flat will 

 respond to scientific care as readily and as profit- 

 ably as a Danvers onion-bed or the cantaloupe 

 fields at Rocky Ford. 



This must be the direction of the new move- 

 ment for the saving of our natural resources — 

 this roundabout road of education. Few laws can 

 be enacted, fewer still enforced, without the help 

 of an awakened public conscience; and a pub- 

 lic conscience, for legislative purposes, is nothing 

 more than a thorough understanding of the facts. 

 As a nation, we need a popular and a thorough 

 education in ornithology, entomology, forestry, 

 and farming, and in the science and morality 

 of corporation rights in public lands. We want 

 sectionally, by belts or states, a scientific training 

 for our specialty, as the shell-fish farmer of the 

 Massachusetts coast is being scientifically trained 

 in clams. These state biologists have brought the 

 clam men from the ends of the shore together; 

 they have plotted and mapped the mollusk terri- 

 tory; they have made a science of clam-culture; 

 they have made an industry of clam-digging; and 

 to the clam-digger they are giving dignity and a 

 sense of security that make him respect himself 



