THE CLAM PROBLEM AND CLAM CULTURE. 
41 
years at least, so far as I am able to determine, there lias been very little change in 
the contour of the Hats. There has been some shifting of sand and extension of the 
thatch plants, but these changes have been relatively unimportant. 
Very much less than the estimated 500 bushels were put upon an acre of ground, 
and the clammers generally believe that half of that amount would be sufficient. As 
a matter of fact, few of the areas leased were properly plauted, and for this and other 
reasons all estimates of the amounts which should be obtained as a result of planting 
under the most favorable circumstances are of little value. 
As stated in the report, the cultivated clam rapidly became large and uniform in 
size, and hence had a high market value. 
We have much evidence that the clam industry in Essex has in the past been 
extensive. From a curious little volume, which was published in 1SGS by a local 
clergyman, on the “History of the Town of Essex from 1634 to 1868,” I find the 
following paragraph: 
For the last twenty years * about 50 men and boys have been employed, chiefly in the spring 
and fall, in digging clams for fishing bait. For this purpose the clam flats in each town (Essex and 
Ipswich) are, by law, free to all its residents, and to no others. Five bushels of clams in the shell, 
it is usually reckoned, make one bushel of “ meats’ ; about 2} bushels of the latter are put into each 
barrel, and this quantity an able-bodied man can dig in three tides. One bushel of dry salt is used 
for each barrel. During this period of twenty years about 2,000 barrels of clams have been dug 
yearly, on the average, and sold at an average price of $6 per barrel. Deducting the cost of the 
barrel, $1, and of the salt, 75 cents, the sum of $4.25 per barrel, or $8,500 per year, has been earned in 
this business. The bait has been marketed chiefly in Gloucester. 
Mr. J. B. Fuller, an old resident of Essex, has this to say of the former industry: 
When I was a boy there were about 100 men who were making a business of digging clams in 
Essex, while to day there are not 10 who get their whole living by it. In those days a man could 
make from $2 to $5 and some times $7 or $8 a day. Now they obtain from 50 cents to $1.50 per day, 
with .just as many acres capable of bearing clams as formerly and with a much better market. The 
demand, also, is rapidly growing. Then, again, the amount of labor now necessary is only about two- 
thirds of that formerly required, for then clams usually had to be taken out of the shell, and now 
they are shipped as they are taken from the bed. 
Much more testimony of a similar character may be had to show that the Hats, 
once very productive, have almost entirely failed, and in spite of the effort made to 
reclaim them. 
It is not difficult to determine the reasons for the failure of the culture experiment 
at Essex. The areas upon which clams were planted were those which were at the 
time unproductive. The beds still containing clams — the “town fiats” — were free to 
any native of Essex. The one thing which was absolutely necessary to the success of 
any planter was that the clams on his leased ground should not be disturbed by other 
diggers. This protection was apparently not given in any case by the town authori- 
ties, and, as no person lived within sight of the majority of the beds, it was quite 
impossible for any man to guard his property much of the time. 
As to what followed it is not easy to obtain definite testimony from the clammers 
themselves. Other citizens of the town, however, and some few clammers, intimate 
that most of the men began to take clams from any property but their own, and that 
Presumably datiug from 1868. 
