THE OYSTER INDUSTRY. 521 



their size aud flavor, which adds proportionate profit in selling. It is neither intended nor desired 

 that they shall produce eggs and start a new colony. 



The same plan is still pursued in many places where natural beds flourish and a market is 

 handy, especially on the southern coasts in New Jersey and Delaware. 



When the native resources began to be insufficient at Wellfleet schooners were sent, as early 

 in the season as cold weather would permit, to buy oysters of more favored localities. These 

 went first to Buzzard's and Narragausett Bays, but speedily extended their purchasing trips as 

 far as Connecticut, Long Island, and finally to Great Egg Harbor, New Jersey, their charterers 

 annually extending their beds in Wellfleet Harbor, until a large business had developed. 



When a vessel arrived home from one of these trips she anchored in the district channel 

 and unloaded her oysters into dories the well-known skiffs of the New England fishermen 

 putting 50 bushels into each one. At high tide these proceeded to the grounds, already divided 

 by rows of stakes into rectangles a few rods square, and deposited a load of 50 bushels in each 

 "square." In order that the oysters might be distributed as evenly as possible over the bottom, 

 the dory was rowed to the center of a square, and anchored at both ends. The dorymen then 

 threw out the oysters with shovels into all parts of the square, intending at low tide to go over 

 them again with rakes for respreading. The ground chosen was the hard surface of the flats in 

 the western portion of the bay, where the oysters would be left dry about two hours at each low 

 tide. They had very little fresh water near them, and the growth was variable. In a favorable 

 season 100 bushels put down in April would fill 300 bushel-measures when taken up in October, 

 but the percentage of loss was probably never less than one-quarter, and now and then amounted 

 to the whole bed. Drifting sand, sudden frosts when the beds were exposed, disease, and active 

 enemies were the causes that operated against complete success; yet enough success was had to 

 make a very important item in the prosperity of that neighborhood whose subsistence was chiefly 

 derived from the summer fisheries, because it added fall and spring work for both sailors and 

 shore people. 



Increasing prices of oysters in Connecticut and elsewhere, owing to the adoption there of 

 similar methods, caused the New England people, early in the present century, to try sending 

 their vessels on the long voyage to Chesapeake Bay after small stock, to be "bedded," as they 

 had long been accustomed to do in winter for the direct supply of northern markets. 



This experiment met with success. The strangers grew with great rapidity and found ready 

 buyers, so that on Cape Cod the business of bedding southern oysters soon attained great dimen- 

 sions, entirely superseding the use of more northern seed stock. At its height, between 1850 

 and 1860, from 100,000 to 150,000 bushels were laid down in the harbor annually, which, if a fair 

 proportion survived, would yield 300,000 or 400,000 bushels when taken up in the fall. The 

 breaking out of the war of the rebellion, however, so interfered with the getting of oysters in 

 the Chesapeake and so increased the expense that the business began to decline. After the war 

 had closed it revived, but now could not compete with other localities under new phases of the 

 trade. Thus Wellfleet ceased several years ago to bed more oysters than sufficed to meet the 

 local demand. 



Meanwhile many other ports along the coast had acted upon the same idea, and the "Virginia 

 trade," as it came generally to be termed, became, and has continued, a recognized and important 

 part of the oyster industry. 



At present the principal points are the upper end of Narragansett Bay, R. I., New Haven, 

 Conn., Staten Island, N. Y., aud the western shore of Delaware Bay. 



THE METHODS EMPLOYED. The methods in all these places are substantially alike. Fish- 



