INSHORE FISHERIES 241 



year 1880. There had been quite a diminution in the 

 quantity of southern oysters bedded down in New England 

 by 1880. The probable cause of the diminution of this 

 trade was the transplanting of native seed oysters. The 

 cultivation of oysters transplanted when young from the 

 natural reefs where they were spawned to inshore grounds 

 has long been followed in the United States. As soon as 

 this method began to be employed in the water of Long 

 Island Sound the competition became too great for the trans- 

 planting of southern oysters and by 1885 the trade had 

 greatly diminished. 1 



The annals of the New England oyster fishery are neces- 

 sarily brief. Except in the state of Connecticut they have 

 been, until recent years, rather unimportant. When the 

 extensive report on the country's fishery was made in 1880, 

 there were over 22,000,000 bushels of oysters produced, 

 having a first value of more than $9,000,000. New Eng- 

 land's contribution to these totals was 536,650 bushels, 

 valued at $654,725, about seven per cent the total value. 

 The value of the Connecticut yield was greater than the 

 combined Massachusetts and Rhode Island output, it be- 

 ing $386,625. The oyster fishery in the Middle Atlantic 

 States for 1901 had a value slightly in excess of $10,000,000. 

 In New England, for 1902, the value was above $2,000,000, 

 and for 1905 almost $4,000,000. So the present day com- 

 parisons are very greatly in favor of the New England in- 

 dustry as far as rate of growth is concerned. 



The value of the industry in Massachusetts was $41,800 

 in 1880; $156,235 in 1899; $133,682 in 1902, and $221,990 

 in 1905. Barnstable County ranks first in the production of 

 oysters, Osterville, Wellfleet and Cotuit being the principal 

 towns from which they are shipped. The oyster beds at the 

 head of Buzzards Bay and in the waters of Wareham town- 

 ship are important. 



iGoode, Sec. V, Vol. II, p. 523. 



