INSHORE FISHERIES 243 



since 1880 has increased steadily until at present the value 

 is more than seven times that of 1880, while the yield is 

 ten times as great. In 1889, the value had increased to 

 $1,055,807. The value for 1898 was $1,249,071, and for 

 1902, $1,471,582, the yield being over 2,000,000 bushels 

 each year. A large part of the seed oysters used in the 

 Rhode Island grounds are supplied from Connecticut. In 

 1898, there were more than 390,000 bushels supplied, 

 valued at a quarter of a million dollars. 



The expansion of the Connecticut oyster industry was 

 very marked between 1902 and 1905. The number of per- 

 sons engaged in the industry increased in the three years 

 under consideration from 1,678 to 2,127; the capital in- 

 vested, from $848,051 to $1,063,908, and the value of the 

 oysters rose from $1,471,582 to $2,809,832, or nearly 100 

 per cent. The increase in the yield of seed oysters was 

 from 848,065 bushels, valued at $872,634 to 1,135,699 

 bushels, the first value to the fishermen being $1,206,217. 1 

 Not only do recent statistics show a gain in the lobster 

 and oyster industries of Rhode Island and Connecticut, but 

 a perusal of the latest reports of the commissioners of the 

 several fisheries of the states shows that the development of 

 the fisheries is receiving an unparalleled degree of attention 

 from the citizens of the states. The oyster fishery of 

 New England, confined almost wholly to the southern 

 coast, had a value in 1905 of $3,961,785, which is far in ex- 

 cess of any other fishery of New England. The sardine 

 canning business of Maine has an output worth above 

 $5,000,000, but that is an industry arising from the fish- 

 eries. The oyster fishery, as such, almost equals the com- 

 bined value of the cod, the lobster, and the mackerel fish- 

 eries of New England. Little wonder that the people of 

 the states where oysters are produced seek to develop the 

 industry. 



i Fisheries of the New England States for 1905. 



