606 



HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



SOUTH SHORE OF LONG ISLAND. Turning Orient Point .and entering the sheltered waters 

 of Gardiner's and Peconic Bays, we find a few quahaugs, reported by Mr. Mather in careful detail 

 as follows : 



At New Suffolk some of the many scallop boats are used in the off-season in getting hard 

 clams, averaging 4 bushels a day from April to October. They take them early and bed them 

 down for summer. 



The south shore of Long Island is also a great source of the supply of clams which go to New 

 York and are used to supply the immense and numerous summer hotels which are open along the 

 whole length of the island during warm weather. It is asserted that in the Great South Bay the 

 clams are gradually moving eastward, the limit of their occupation at present being Ferry's Bed, 

 off Brown's Point. They are taken all the year round, when ice does not prevent, but most 

 actively when oysters are out of season. The oyster boats from 2 to 6 tons in size are used, and five 

 hundred men, with two hundred boys, work more or less at this fishing. A good day's work now 

 is to procure a thousand clams, or about three bushels (for they are of small size), worth about $2. 

 The tongs and rakes are made heavier than those used in oystering, generally having iron heads, 

 and costing $5 or $6. 



At Islip a firm of packers puts up these clams for market. The statistics of this firm's busi 

 ness for 1880 are as follows : 



Men employed 10 



Women employed 12 



Boys and girls employed 4 



Men catching clams 80 



Number of clams used 5,000,000 



Number of 2-ponnd cans " clams " 75, 000 



Number of 1-pound cans "clams" 40,000 



Number of 2-pound cans " clam chowder " 10, 000 



Number of 1-ponnd cans "clam cnowder" 3,000 



At Amityville on man has attempted successfully the cultivation of quahaugs. His method 

 is simply to gather or purchase them when about the size of pennies and spread them upon his 

 oyster beds. He says they grow very flast and return him a good profit. 



