114 LIBERTY AND A LIVING. 



work with shovels and carts that any communi- 

 cation between the bay and the ocean was 

 maintained. For several years there was a 

 day appointed, usually in the spring, when the 

 farmers and fishermen within ten miles of 

 Patchogue and Bellport were called upon to 

 meet at the inlet and put in a day's work at 

 Digging. If the response to the call was a 

 satisfactory one, the work of clearing out the 

 channel to a depth of four or five feet right 

 across the sand-bar took but a few hours ; 

 then, if there came up no great storm, such an 

 inlet would last all summer, giving plenty of 

 salt water to the bay. In the autumn the first 

 great storms of winter filled up the inlet, and 

 in the spring the work had to be done all over 

 again. About twenty-five years ago it became 

 evident that the ocean was a far better work- 

 man than the people of Patchogue, and was 

 making it more and more difficult to keep up 

 communication with the bay. As no vessels 

 of any size could sail through this artificial 

 ditch, the only use for it was to give salt water 

 to the bay, and this benefited only the fisher- 

 men. So the farmers objected to working for 

 this purpose, and the inlet was allowed to 



