VENUS MERCENARIA 5 



repeal a law of this character is extremely difficult, for it appeals 

 to the many as a cession of their rights to the privileged few. But 

 all would have equal rights to the property by lease or purchase. 

 Good beaches are very numerous, and there is little danger that 

 any would be excluded who might desire such property. The sale 

 and lease of bottoms to oystermen along the shores of Long Island, 

 have apparently worked injustice to no person who is desirous of 

 entering that occupation. At a very few points on the coast, por- 

 tions of flats have been leased to clammers. These experiments 

 have failed because of a lack of adequate protection. Unless such 

 a system, with proper protection, is introduced by the repeal of 

 old, and the enactment of new laws, soft clam culture will be 

 impossible, and such laws can be had only when they are desired 

 by the people at large. 



The little-neck clam, Venus mercenaria, grows most abundantly 

 below the low tide line, where it is taken by means of tongs. Much 

 of the shallow bottom about Long Island, in which clams were 

 formerly taken, has been leased to oystermen. The profit from 

 oyster culture is much greater, acre for acre, than that derived 

 fromi the taking of hard clams, which are left to propagate by the 

 natural method. The areas left to clammers are now Hmited, and 

 the greater part of the supply used in the canning industry comes 

 from the southern coast. At the same time, clams are rapidly 

 diminishing in the available beds. 



The little-neck is also found betw^een tide lines. This fact 

 suggested experiments to determine whether they grow well in 

 such places. Beaches and flats are not now generally available 

 by lease. If this were given, these areas could be more easily 

 protected than those in deeper water, and the matter of planting 

 and digging would be greatly simplified. It is of the utmost 

 importance, however, that clams not continually submerged 

 should increase in size with some degree of rapidity, to insure the 

 success of culture methods under these conditions. An account 

 will be given of this growth in Venus. 



Very little is known of the growth of lower organisms. Among 

 the Lamellibrarchi?ta, the group of mollusks to which the clams 

 belong, much is known concerning the growth of the oyster, 

 which, for many years, has been artificially reared in Europe and 



