338 



Part III — Seventh Annual Report 



meeting was held at Usan, when it was agreed to co-operate with the 

 Ferryden men. The society consisted of 144 members, of whom 116 

 belonged to Ferryden, while 28 were Usan fishermen. Mr Johnston was 

 appointed manager and treasurer of the society, and, without fee or 

 reward, other than being the pioneer of a new enterprise and benefactor 

 of the fishermen, established the Ferryden and Usan Society on a firm 

 basis from which has developed the present successful organisation for the 

 cultivation of the Montrose beds. 



The co-operation of the fishermen for their own benefit was easily 

 secured by Mr Johnston, as the sentence to imprisonment for three months 

 of five of the fisherwomen of Ferryden, ' whose character for honesty was 



* unimpeachable,' for stealing mussels from the Dun Sands, and the 

 apprehension of the crews of five Usan boats on a similar charge, excited 

 indignation in the fishing committees and sympathy for the fishermen. 

 Backed up by the proprietor Colonel Macdonald of Rossie and St Martin's, 

 Mr Johnston, ' having carefully inspected the Rossie sands on the south 

 ' side of the river,' was { convinced that it was practicable by a proper and 

 £ careful system of cultivation to raise there a sufficient supply of mussels.'* 



' Prior to 1853 there were no mussels on the Rossie ground, and what 

 ' mussels were required were dredged from the bed of the river by the 

 ' fishermen themselves, or purchased from the lessee of the Dun mussel 

 ' beds.'f 



The method which was employed when the society began operations is 

 told by Mr Johnston in his report : — 



' Immediately a commencement was made in the cultivation of mussels 

 ' on the Rossie ground, south of the River Southesk, a great quantity 

 ' of seed, obtained in the river, and on both sides of its banks below the 

 ' suspension bridge, was planted on a large portion of the ground above 

 ' the Salthouse Bank. The members, with their boats, took the seed to 

 1 the ground. On the return of the boats from the herring-fishing of 

 ( 1855, the tacksman of the Dun sands intimated that he could not give 

 ' a supply of mussels for the ensuing season. | The society were thus 

 1 compelled to resort to their own ground ; and, although there had been 

 ' too little time to admit of a sufficient growth and increase of mussels, 

 1 the sale was commenced after a survey of the ground.' 



This premature and continued sale of the mussels, and the destruction 

 by the women who gathered mussels from the beds of 'three times as 



* many as they collected,' impoverished the new beds, and induced the 

 society, after correspondence with the manager of the St Andrews beds, 

 to alter their methods of cultivation, especially of collecting the mussels 

 for bait. 



' About September 1856 an additional number of men were employed 

 ' by the Society, both to plant seed and to gather mussels by raking; and 

 ' the women were stopped from gathering in the old way by wading on 

 ' the sands.' 



The ground was parcelled out into four divisions, so that a continuous 

 supply of mature mussels might be obtained for four years from 1858. 



In his report Mr Johnston gave the profit derived during his manage- 

 ment up to March 1858 as follows : — 



* Report by James Johnston, junior, Montrose 1858. 



t From Statement of Secretary and Treasurer of Ferryden and Usan Society to 

 Scottish Mussel and Bait Committee, page 78. 



% This was meant to destroy the work on the society's grounds. He wished to 

 buy up all the seed and half grown mussels, hut the members of the society took the 

 advice of Mr Johnston and would not sell. Had they sold, the preliminary work 

 would have been destroyed, 



