RHODE ISLAND: THE OYSTER INTERESTS. 293 



95. EXTENT OF THE OYSTER BUSINESS IN 1879. 



CAPITAL INVESTED. The amount of capital invested in this State it is almost impossible to 

 come at. It probably approaches $1,000,000, including perhaps 8300,000 or $350,000 worth of seed 

 oysters growing on the beds. One-third or more of this property is owned in Boston, and the 

 necessary money for carrying on operations comes thence, but is represented by men who also do 

 more or less private planting on their own account. Of course this is chiefly in the hands of a 

 dozen or more planters on the list ; the forty or fifty others will not average a greater sum than 

 $1,000 each invested in this business, which is chiefly conducted personally, close to their bay-side 

 homes, and without hired help, by selling to home shippers. The expensive warehouses required 

 by some of the wholesale dealers and shippers in the city of Providence count largely in the esti- 

 mate of capital involved; and the boats used are of a good class. 



YIELD AND VALUE OF THE OYSTER BEDS. The yield of the beds and its value, appears in the 

 following table : 



Busbels. 



1879. Native oysters produced on beds owned in Rhode Island 1.08, 200 



Southern oysters, ditto 274,300 



Native oysters produced 011 beds owned out of the State 40, 000 



Southern oysters, ditto 238,000 



Total Xarragausett production 660,500 



The total value of this, and some additional annual business, will amount to at least $600,000, 

 at the original wholesale price paid the producer. 



PRICES AND WAGES. The prices at which oysters were sold by wholesale dealers in the city 

 of Providence, during 1879, were the following: Virginias, in shell, selected, $1 to $1.25 per 

 bushel ; Virginia plants, common, 90 cents per gallon ; Virginia plants, selected, $1.25 per gallon : 

 natives, in shell, $1.25 to $1.50 per bushel; at retail, 25 to 35 cents a quart, of all kinds. Some 

 "fancy'- lots, of course, brought higher rates than these prevailing market prices. In "Arnold's" 

 and other restaurants the most palatable oysters possible are laid upon the counter to tempt the 

 appetite. Those from Gaspe Point, purely native grown, are recognized as the very best of all, 

 and sell for 5 cents a piece. They are delicious. So great an industry, of course, gives support to 

 a numerous body of citizens in this district, at least during part of the year. In the summer so 

 little is done that comparatively few are employed, this number, including only the proprietors of 

 beds, the dealers and assistants who are obliged to keep their shops open, and the few men required 

 for catching oysters for the feeble market, for spreading shells and planting seed, and for watching 

 the safety of the beds. Reckoning the proprietors as perhaps 100 in all, the addition of the rest 

 employed the year round would bring the total up to about 250; but this varies considerably from 

 year to year. They are paid by the week, as a rule, wages running from $7 to $14, and averaging 

 about $10. For the colder half of the year, "the season," as it is called, large additional help is 

 needed, both on the water and in the opening houses that are placed close to the shore at various 

 points, or on the wharves in the southern part of Providence city. Taking all the oj'ster houses 

 together at the head of Narragansett Bay, I find about 350 openers employed. Add this to the 250 

 counted up as otherwise employed, and I have GOO men as the total. A very large proportion of 

 these men are married; and I believe it would not be unfair, all things considered, to multiply 

 this GOO by 4, which would give us 2,400 persons of all sexes and ages supported chiefly by the 

 oyster industry in the Rhode Island district. I believe this is short of the truth. The sum of the 

 wages pml is somewhere about $125,000 annually. 



