MASSACHUSETTS: SALEM AND BEVEELY DISTRICT. 



181 



ledges of the harbor and from 5 to 10 miles outside. Most of the catch is secured in April, May, 

 September, and October; only a few are taken in warm weather. The catch of late years shows a 

 general decrease, especially in the size of the lobsters. Small lobsters are reported plentiful, and 

 are taken regardless of the State law referring to their length. Each boat, on an average, fishes 

 with sixty pots, and makes a daily average catch of 150 lobsters during the season. The winter 

 fishing averages 75 lobsters a day for each boat. The total catch in 1879 was 250,000. Most of the 

 early catch is sold in Boston, while later in the season it is boiled in the old-fashioned kettle, and 

 the greater part of it sold in the neighboring towns. 



Concerning the oyster trade of Salem and vicinity, Mr. Ingersoll, in his census report on that 

 industry, says: 



"The oyster business here, the next place north of Boston where there is any original trade, 

 seems quite out of proportion to the importance of the town. The reason is found in the fact that 

 a large surrounding region derives its supplies from this point, as well as the town itself, which 

 appears to be highly educated in the eating of all kinds of shellfish. Two schooners, the T. A. 

 Newcomb, 130 tons, and the Lizzie Smith, 118 tons, are engaged in the trade. They cost $22.000, 

 but now are worth only about $5,000 each. In the summer they go on mackereling voyages, but 

 in the winter devote their whole time to bringing oysters from Virginia. Ten years ago 25,000 

 bushels sufficed for the demand, and a portion of these came from New York Bay; in 1875 three 

 vessels were employed, and Salem called for 45,000 bushels, all from the Chesapeake. At present, 

 however, the total annual importation by sailing craft does not exceed 40,000 bushels, with about 

 5,000 bushels by steamer from Norfolk, in winter, added. About 500 bushels of fancy stock 

 from New York are also sold. A large portion of these oysters are sold at the wharf; another 

 large portion goes into the storehouse; a thjrd part are opened; and the remainder (8,000 to 9,000 

 bushels) are laid down in Collin's Bay, near Beverly Bar, where they are dry at each ebb-tide. No 

 opened oysters are taken from Norfolk or Baltimore. The result is as follows: 



" Selling price of Virginia oysters, imported at wharf, 40 cents; selling price of bedded oysters, in summer, 90 cents (common), $1.20 

 (selected); selling price of opened oysters (common), $1 per gallon; selling price of opened oysters (selected), $1.20 per gallon; selling price 

 of opened oysters (in winter), 75 cents per gallon; mutual amount of business, $40,000. 



"The firms engaged employ forty-three men from November 1 to May 1; the rest of the year 

 about twenty men. This represents about one hundred persons supported by the business, since 

 many of the men are unmarried. The weekly salaries will average $12, and shuckers are paid 20 

 cents for each solid gallon. 



"The old shells are disposed of to the gas company of the city at one-half cent a bushel, the 

 purchaser paying for the carting. This does not take all of the 1,500 or so bushels a week accumu- 

 lating, which are used by the proprietors to fill in water-lots, which they buy for the purpose of 

 thus converting into land. To sell their shells is more profitable, however. 



"The leading firm in Salem, Messrs. D. B. & J. Newcornb, boasts an economic method of trans- 

 ferring the cargo from the vessel to the shuckers' broad tables, ranged around the interior walls of 

 their shucking-house down on the wharf. This building is two-storied, and is flush with the side 

 of the wharf, so that the vessel moors alongside. A door iu the end of the loft opens upon a rail- 



