EHODE ISLAND: THE OYSTER INTERESTS. 291 



oyster for these waters is a question that Las received iiuicli attention. One gentleman told me 

 that he had lost the whole of two years' labor by trying to put down cargoes from the Rappahan- 

 nock. Another planter, equally experienced, said these succeeded well enough if brought here 

 and planted before the weather became at all warm. Oysters from the Saint Mary and Potomac 

 Rivers are troublesome because mixed with many obnoxious mussels, and, besides, they do not 

 grow well, as a rule. Those from Tangier Sound are pretty good, and are largely bought. The 

 general verdict, however, is that the best Virginia oyster for this bay is to be had in the James 

 River. These show the largest growth at the end of the season, developing a hard, flinty shell 

 and white meats ; on the contrary, I was told that at New Haven, Conn., the James River oysters 

 cannot be used at all. But many cargoes are planted here, the exact southern home of which is 

 never known. 



The laying down of southern oysters must all be done early in the spring. If they would only 

 survive the voyage as late as June, Mr. Bourne thought that mouth would be the best time to 

 plant them. "When I suggested the use of steamers to expedite the transfer, he said it would not 

 help matters, for the jarring of the cargo, caused by the throb of the engine, would kill the 

 mollusks. He did not even allow any wood to be split on his oyster vessels for fear of this species 

 of damage. Uf the half a million bushels bedded in Rhode Island yearly, about half are owned in 

 Boston. 



During the winter of 1878-'79, the Norfolk-opened oysters were brought to Providence in 

 large quantities, but the experiment was generally considered unsatisfactory, and but few now 

 come. 



NATIVE AND SEED OYSTEKS. The fattening of Virginia oysters is only half the business, though 

 perhaps the most profitable part, in Rhode Island. A vast number of "native" oysters are raised 

 in Narragansett Bay. though but a portion of them are born there. There are only a few places in 

 the bay where a "set," as it is called, occurs with any regularity or of any consequence. In the 

 Warren and Barrington Rivers it has not happened for twenty years, and the same is true of the 

 whole eastern shore, except Cole's, Kickarnuit, and Seekouk Rivers. Providence River itself never 

 produces young oysters now, nor does any part of the western shore, except Greenwich Bay and 

 the ponds in the extreme southern part of the State, deriving their salt water directly from the 

 Atlantic. The cause of this dearth of spawn and seed, where once every shore was populous with, 

 it, can only be ascribed, I think, to the antecedent disappearance, through persistent raking, of all 

 the old native oysters. In Cole's River a heavy "set" occurred three years ago, and from 500 to 

 1,000 bushels are obtained every year. In the Kickamuit the shores arc dotted with infant ostrea? 

 annually, and supply the planted beds there, while old oysters of very good quality are not infre- 

 quent. In dredging back and forth throughout the whole extent of Greenwich Bay, the scallop- 

 fishers frequently take up large oysters, evidently "to the manor born," and they are now and then 

 seen on the shore rocks. About 1872 there was a very large "set" here and in Potowomut River, 

 just below. Boats came down from Providence and elsewhere and were filled again and again. 

 But all of the crop left was swept away by starfishes, which were then very abundant, or was buried 

 beneath drifting sand and wrack, and so no establishment of a natural bed there was possible. If 

 these young oysters were not all picked out of Greenwich Bay in the fall, they would live through 

 the winter, even where the ice rested fully upon them at low tide, and would soon repopnlate the 

 bay. But now their annual value to any one is insignificant and constantly decreasing. 



There remains one river, nevertheless, where, under protection, the oysters arc able to repro- 

 duce regularly every year. This is the Seekouk, which flows down past Pawtucket and Providence, 



