TOE OYSTER INDUSTRY. 537 



this ground is devoted to the growing of Chesapeake oysters than to the raising of the " native," 

 or northern seed, to which we are now attending. 



The seed used, as I have hinted, comes almost wholly from outside waters. Besides small 

 quantities from the Kickainuit and Warren Rivers, the Seekonk, at the head of Providence Harbor, 

 is the only remaining home locality of any account where small oysters may be gathered. The 

 history of this river I have given elsewhere. 



The remainder of the seed-oysters planted in Narragansett Bay come from the Connecticut 

 shore, East River, Fire Island, and the Great South Bay,_Somerset (planted chiefly by those 

 owning privileges in Taunton River), and from various parts of Buzzard's Bay. I often asked 

 which was best, but could never get evidence of much superiority in any one kind. The success 

 of a planting does not depend on the kind of seed put down so much as it does upon a thousand 

 circumstances of weather, water, and bottom. The seed which would do excellently in one cove 

 would behave badly in the next, and vice versa, individual preferences being founded upon these 

 varying and unexplained experiences. The seed from the south shore of Long Island used to be 

 cheapest of all, and good ; but a Boston demand ran up the price beyond the pockets of Rhode 

 Island planters. In general, it may be said that any seed transplanted to Narragansett Bay 

 develops into a better oyster than it would have come to be if left in its native waters. 



Similarly, it is hard to tell what has been the outcome of a particular planting that is, how 

 much profit is made because it is inextricably mixed with various other work. Native seed put 

 down and ready to grow has cost on an average about CO cents a bushel. To estimate profits on 

 it is out of the question until the oysters are all sold, nor even then. If all does well, treble 

 value is calculated upon in three years' growth. 



It is not even decided whether it pays best to grow " natives" or fatten " Chesapcakes." The 

 first year you plant a piece of ground the oysters do the best; the next year poorer; the third 

 year they fail. Consequently, the oystermen try not to plant the same area continually, but 

 shift their oysters around to allow the old ground to be revived by free contact with the sea. 



BUZZARD'S BAY. The oyster-planting operations in Buzzard's Bay, supplied almost wholly 

 by local seed, with small additions, principally from Somerset, are widely distributed but not of 

 great importance. There was formerly a very large oyster business in the Wareham River, but 

 this has been unprofitable of late. The Monument River and the shores near its mouth are prob- 

 ably the points of greatest importance at present. More or less planting is carried on also 

 on the Cape Cod shore at the entrance to Buzzard's Bay, while experiments at Wellfleet are 

 having a profitable outcome. 



METHODS OF GATHERING SEED OYSTERS IN LONG ISLAND SOUND. 



SEED GATHERING IN LONG ISLAND SOUND. Before dismissing this subject it will be proper 

 to give some brief account of the seed-gathering in Long Island Sound, which is the source of nearly 

 all supplies east of New York City. Midsummer is the season devoted to this work. In gather 

 ing seed near shore, and somewhat otherwise, tongs and occasionally rakes (those with long 

 curved teeth) are used; but in deep water, where all work of consequence is done, the oysters, 

 young, old, and refuse together, are brought from the bottom by dredges of various weights. In 

 the case of all the smaller sail-boats, the dredges having been thrown overboard and filled, are 

 hauled up by hand a back-breaking operation. The oysters themselves are very heavy, and 

 frequently half the amount caught is composed of shells, dead oysters, wiukles, and other trash, 

 which must be culled out, thus compelling the oystermen to twice or thrice the work which they 

 would be put to if there were nothing but oysters on the ground. The work of catching the 

 oysters by any of these methods is, therefore, very tiresome and heavy, and various improvements 



