REPORT OP THE DIRECTOR AND STATE GEOLOGIST 1901 rl37 



season. Each barrel contains from 200 to 250 crabs. The exact 

 statistics are not at present available. 



The soft crab industry, the " shedding " of crabs for the 

 market, is confined almost entirely to the western end of the 

 island, in the region around Freeport. No examination of the 

 fisheries here was made. At the western end of the island 

 the writer found a number of men who had tried shedding crabs 

 but had given it up, as, they said, it did not pay them for their 

 time. But a single man, at Center Moriches, was found who 

 was making a success of it, and his trade was almost entirely 

 local. 



An investigation in the New York markets appeared to show 

 the reason for this rather anomalous state of the Long Island 

 crab fishing. As one man explained it, "the southern crabs 

 have the market, they can start it in April and keep it up all 

 summer till September or October, while on Long Island they 

 can't get in their work before July, and by that time the taste 

 for crabs is partly over." Barring the last statement, the above 

 appears to be substantially the truth. The relatively greater 

 abundance of the crabs in the south (by which is meant the 

 region around Orisfield Md.) and the longer season more than 

 offset the difference in express rates between those places and 

 Long Island. The longer season there enables men to take up 

 crab fishing and shedding as a business, while the shorter time 

 on Long Island does not pay a man to do it. 



In the case of the hard crab is the fact that the supply is 

 usually greater than the demand, and the prices are low. It 

 appears, on the other hand, that, even with the extra care and 

 risk of loss among soft shell crabs, the average price of $1 a 

 dozen which is frequently paid on the island to the fishermen, 

 without any middle man, ought to make it pay. It, however, 

 appears! to be otherwise. 



From this preliminary survey, it would therefore appear that 

 there is no immediate cause for alarm concerning the crab 

 fisheries of New York. This appears to be due to two factors: 

 the nondestruction of the females in berry; and the present 



