Bringing Clams to the Backyard in Buxton 



Barbara and Luther Midgett, of Buxton, raise 

 hunting dogs, bees, vegetables, children and — in a 

 new venture — clams. 



"We had what we consider an ideal farming 

 situation in our backyard and we knew another 

 man had farmed successfully in Hatteras," Barbara 

 Midgett says to explain the 30-by-100 feet clam 

 pen installed behind her home in November 1975. 

 "We'd always raked wild clams so we thought why 

 not call Hughes and Sumner and see if we were 

 eligible for a pilot project." 



Sumner Midgett and Hughes Tillet, the Sea 

 Grant clam farming explorers, looked over the 

 area and decided it looked prime for clam produc- 

 tion. They helped the Midgetts build a protective 

 pen of vinyl coated wire. Treated wood pilings were 

 installed about every 10 feet and the structure was 

 given a life expectancy of at least five years, 

 Barbara Midgett says. 



"We really don't have to do anything. We 

 just go and look at them and clear off any 

 debris and watch for crabs." 



The pen was then divided into seven smaller 

 sections. Two thousand eighth-inch size seed clams 

 were placed in one section, 2,000 quarter-inch in 

 the next and 4,000 three-eighths inch clams in the 

 next. The other four sections were filled with clams 

 with a diameter of five-eighths of an inch. Twenty- 

 five hundred of these clams were put in two parts 

 of the pen and 3,500 in the remaining two sections. 

 Sea Grant will monitor the operation to see which 

 sizes and densities of clams grow best. 



"We really don't have to do anything," Barbara 

 Midgett says. "We just go and look at them and 

 clear off any debris and watch for crabs. We've 

 had low mortality and considerable growth. We 

 look to harvesting cherrystone-size clams 16 

 months from last November." 



The Midgetts have applied for a lease for five 

 acres of bottom off their own 225-foot shoreline. 

 If the lease comes through they plan to go into the 

 clam business as a sideline. They're expecting at 

 least 100 per cent profit on their $300 to $400 

 investment and are looking at marketing outside 

 the state, where prices may be higher. 



"So far, so good," Barbara Midgett says of the 

 project. "The clams are doing fine — the weather 

 doesn't seem to affect them and I don't think we've 

 lost more than 40 or 50 from the total. I'm fasci- 

 nated by it and I think it's an excellent idea be- 

 cause there's a tremendous demand for clams in- 

 land and limited space where they can be farmed. 



"And anywhere they're successful it's additional 

 food supply for the United States." 



Ra 



The University of North Carolina Sea Grant 

 Program Newsletter is published monthly by the 

 University of North Carolina Sea Grant Program, 

 1235 Burlington Laboratories, Yarborough Drive, 

 North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C. 

 27607. Vol. 3, No. 7 July, 1976. Dr. B. J. Copeland, 

 director. Written and edited by Karen Jurgensen 

 and Johanna Seltz. Second-class postage paid at 

 Raleigh, N.C. 27611. 



