THE OYSTER INDUSTRY. 535 



ally extending itself into a productive tract half way to Norwalk, and the scraping of the bottom 

 with the big, deep cutting, dredge-like clam-rake undoubtedly contributes to the growth of young 

 oysters as well as young clams there, by preparing the ground to retain the spawn, which is at 

 that very season floating about. 



Planters who require large supplies, and nearly all those who live east of Great Neck and City 

 Island, either buy their seed from others or go after it themselves to the public oyster-grounds up 

 the sound, where a large fleet of oyster vessels may be seen during the proper season, gathered 

 from Few York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and the Great South Bay, as well as from the town, 

 along both shores of the sound. 



From City Island (the oldest artificial beds in East River) eastward oyster-beds are planted 

 with this seed, annually, at every favorable spot as far as Port Chester and East Chester. The 

 business is of small account, however, though many persons are engaged in it in feeble fashion. 

 The coves about the harbor of Greenwich, Conn., are occupied by planters, who raise perhaps 

 35,000 bushels annually. Stamford has seen better days than the present in the oyster busi- 

 ness, and the same is true of Darien, just beyond. 



At Rowayton, or Five-Mile River, the next shore-town, however, very important planting 

 interests are owned, and excellent oysters are raised for the New York and European markets. The 

 little creek-mouth is filled with oyster-sloops, and the shores are lined with the warehouses of the 

 planters, who are prosperous and enterprising, harvesting probably 75,000 bushels annually. Like 

 all other parts of the East River, the oysters are sold here wholly in the shell, and almost always 

 by the barrel or bushel, the selling "by count" belonging to the region farther west and to the 

 Long Island shore. Just eastward of Rowaytou lies the city and harbor of South Norwalk, one of 

 the most important oyster-producing localities in Long Island Sound, as well as one of the "oldest. " 

 The bay at the mouth of the Norwalk River is tilled with islands, which protect the shallow waters 

 from the fury of the gales, and their sheltered coves began to be utilized for oyster planting about 

 1850. Now the business has grown to such proportion that more than one hundred families get 

 their whole support from it, and the annual yield approaches 100,000 bushels, produced by about 

 fifty planters, who. occupy 2,500 acres of ground, the right to which they would not sell for less 

 than $8,000 or $10,000. From $50,000 to $75,000 a year are reinvested in the beds at Norwalk, 

 counting the time of the planters as so much money. Few can afford to hire help, except occa- 

 sionally, for a few days at a time. Wages, in that case, are from $1 to $2 per day. Many of the 

 planters here, and at Rowayton, are also concerned in operations on the opposke shore of Long 

 Island. 



At Westport (to move another step eastward) the first efforts at planting were made in the 

 mill pond east of the village, a pond of salt water about 40 acres in extent. The bottom of this 

 pond is a soft mass of mud ; not barren, clayey mud, but a flocculent mass of decayed vegetation, 

 &c., apparently inhabited through and through by the microscopic life, both vegetable and animal, 

 which the oyster feeds upon. Although the young oysters placed there sank out of sight in this 

 mud, they were not smothered on account of its looseness, but, on the contrary, throve to an extra- 

 ordinary degree, as also did their neighbors, the clams and eels, becoming of great size and 

 extremely fat. Fifteen years ago oysters from this pond sold for $3 a bushel; and for one lot 

 $16.50 is said to have been obtained. Before long, however, a rough class of loungers began to 

 frequent the pond, and the oysters were stolen so fast that planting there has almost wholly 

 ceased, and prices have greatly declined. 



Similarly the plant'ing-beds at the mouth of the Saugatuck, where a quarter of a century ago 

 Westport men used to lay down a large part of the 50,000 bushels of small oysters annually 



