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THE SCALLOP FISHERY. 573 



opening scollops with their hands, singing merrily some baby song to quiet the young ones, and 

 by an indescribable motion of the left foot rocking the cradles with a gentle motion all-sufficient 

 to keep the nurseling quiet. In another corner was a mother nursing her three-weeks-old babe at 

 an interval in the work. 



"A slow opener, at the present rates paid for labor 12J cents for a gallon of eyes will earn 

 from 80 cents to $1 a day ; a rapid one, one-half more. The fastest we observed was a lad of 

 fourteen, named Patsy McGuire, who opened at the rate of thirty a minute by the watch. It 

 takes 2 bushels of bis-alves to make a gallon of eyes. IH the work a leather palrn is used to 

 protect the hands. 



" The motions of the expert opener are but three after the scallop is in hand. The bivalve is 

 taken in the left hand, palm up, with the hinges of the scallop toward the opener's body. The 

 knife a simple piece of steel, ground sharp and with one end stuck in a small wooden handle is 

 inserted in the opening of the shell farthest from the breast. A turn is given, cutting apart the 

 shells. The upper eye is severed through by this movement. A flirt at the same moment throws 

 off the upper shell. The second motion cuts the lower fastenings of the eye to the under shell 

 and takes the soft and useless rim off. The last motion throws the shell in one barrel and the 

 soft and slimy rim in another, while the eye is thrown into a basin of yellow stoneware holding a 

 gallon. They are then taken from the basin, thrown into a large colander, thoroughly washed, 

 placed in clean boxes and shipped to New York and Brooklyn. The prices this year [1879] have 

 beeii high, the shipper realizing $1.50 a gallon. The highest price ever given was $2.50, the 

 lowest 50 cents, which does not pay the cost of the catch." 



It is said that each of the eleven shops mentioned employs one boat and two men to catch for 

 them, and from five to fifteen (averaging ten) persons in. opening. The total of this is one 

 hundred and thirty-three, the number of persons hired in New Suffolk, Long Island, alone, during 

 the oyster season, besides many independent boatmen and dredgers.* The Herald's review, 

 heretofore quoted, places the whole number of those employed at New Suffolk, scallop head- 

 quarters, as about one hundred and fifty of all ages, from men and women of sixty all the way 

 down to boys and girls often and twelve. The carefully ascertained census of Mr. Fred. Mather, 

 made in this same locality and shown in the appended table, nearly coincides with this. 



At Greenwich, R. I., the scallops are " shipped loose in small wooden boxes, without ice,'' 

 according to Kumlien, " as ice spoils their flavor and swells them up. They are obliged to ice 

 those sent to New York in the early part of the season, nevertheless, but the flavor is much 

 impaired by the meat coming in contact with the sweet water." 



There is and ought to be little or no waste in the scallop fishery. The oyster-planters of 

 Providence and Taun ton Rivers justly regard scallop shells as the best possible cultch for their 

 seed-beds and pay a higher price for them than for oyster shells. The same disposal is made of 

 the shells accumulating at New Suffolk, " piles of which to the height of 8 or 10 feet and covering 

 a quarter of an acre were alongside the opening-houses." They are used to deposit on the oyster 

 beds of Long Island Sound, and no less than 50,000 bushels, for which $1,250, at 2 cents a 

 bushel, was paid, were sold at New Suffolk alone in 1880. One single firm in Fair Haven, Conn . 

 has ordered 25,000 bushels to be saved for them from the scallop-opening in 1881. 



The use of a somewhat similar shell, the cockle (Cardium), in France in the cultivation oi 1 

 oysters is described by Major Hayes in his report to the English Government on the Oyster 

 Fisheries of France, in 1877. " I n examining the channels [at Arcachon] " says Major Hayes, " my 



* Thanks me due to Mr. O. 13. Goldsmith, of Ciitchogne, for information from that rcgiou. 



