1886 ] The Scallop and its Fishery. 1005 
work is performed with great dexterity. The motions of an ex- 
pert opener are but three after the scallop is in hand. The bivalve 
is taken in the left hand, palm up, with the hinges of the scal- 
lop toward the opener’s body. The knife—a simple piece of 
steel ground sharp, and with one end stuck in a wooden handle 
—is inserted in the opening of the shell furthest from the breast. 
The upper “eye” is severed through by this movement. A flirt 
at the same moment throws off the upper shell. The second mo- 
tion cuts the lower fastenings of the eye to the upper shell and 
takes the soft and useless rim off. The last motion pitches the 
shell into one barrel and the soft and slimy rim into another, 
while the eye is thrown into a basin of yellow stoneware holding 
agallon. They are then poured from the basin into a large col- 
lander, thoroughly washed, placed in clean boxes and shipped 
to New York and Brooklyn. As little fresh water or ice is 
placed in contact with the “meats” as possible, as it is thought 
detrimental to their firmness and flavor. As this is altogether a 
winter operation, the help of ice in transportation is not usually 
needed. 
There is, or ought to be, no waste in the scallop fishery. On 
Long Island the refuse is taken by the farmers as manure. These 
sea-faring agriculturists have always been accustomed to replen- 
ish their half-exhausted lands with the scrapings of the beach 
and with the menhaden and other seine-fish which could be 
caught plentifully enough for the purpose in the offing—much 
to the disgust of every stranger who found himself to leeward of 
their fields. This demand failing, there is always sale for the 
refuse to the regular fertilizer-factories scattered along the shore. 
The shells are preferred above all others by the oyster-planters 
as “stools” or “cultch” to spread upon their deep-water plant- 
5 i i ” $ 
ing beds as objects upon which the oyster-spawn may “ set ” and 
grow. This wise preference is due to the fragility of the scallop- 
shell, permitting it to break into pieces under the strain of a 
growing cluster of oysters, each one of which will be benefited 
by the separation, which frees it from the crowding of its fellows 
and gives it room to expand by itself into comely and valuable 
rotundity, instead of remaining a strap-shaped distorted member 
of a coalescent group. All their shells, therefore, can easily be 
os Sold by the openers to the oystermen at from three to five cents 
a bushel. ee 
