THE CLAM PROBLEM AND CLAM CULTURE. 
43 
all the barren flats are covered, all flats upon which clams had matured to become 
common property. The fatal objection to this, as well as to the closed season, 
is that every man’s interest is bound up in that of his neighbor, and he would be 
constantly haunted with the fear of not realizing his full share of the profits. This 
would prompt him to make sure of his own, and the result would be the quick and 
certain defeat of the whole i>lan. These communistic schemes have been tried often 
in our country in recent years, and we are able to know from their almost universal 
failure that this would certainly fail. Besides, the difficulty of determining who were 
really engaged in the clam business— making it a means of livelihood — would be very 
great. How much work, in planting for the public, should be asked of the man who 
digs clams for market only occasionally? It would also be difficult to determine when 
the public work had been done. 
The lease, with swift and certain enforcement of a law against trespassers, would 
at once establish a great industry where there is now only the prospect of continued 
desolation. 
The flats at Essex afford an opportunity for producing an immense number of clams. 
Great tracts, Avith here and there a growth of thatch plants, are exposed at low tide. 
Down near the opening to the sea the sands shift to some extent, but in almost every 
other locality the changes are so slow aud so slight that clams are not affected by 
them. A glance at the appended map will give some idea of the immense size of this 
tract. But the map itself shows only what are known as the south flats. Stretching 
in a northwesterly direction from the region about Choate Island is an area of flats 
which many of the clammers claim to be larger than the one shown in the map. Unfor- 
tunately 1 was not able, when I visited Essex in August of 1898, to go over this ground 
as I did the south flats, but I could see from Choate Island that it was extensive. 
In constructing my map I have represented the natural beds — areas where clams 
can now be found — by stippling. The beds which were planted in the culture experi- 
ment are again almost entirely barren. Of course clams may be found here and there 
on these tracts, but they are few in number. The clams of the natural beds are 
generally too small to market, chiefly because they are so closely packed together. If 
the majority of such clams were removed for planting elsewhere the natural beds 
themselves would soon produce an abundance of large clams. 
The most important feature shown by the map is the extent of nonproductive 
ground, where every natural condition is favorable for the growth of clams. These 
areas were formerly, as I have indicated, natural beds. They are represented by the 
oblique shading lines. Almost every foot of ground for hundreds of yards about the 
point where the Essex Biver widens out into the great flats, might and should be 
yielding great quantities of the finest of clams, and this without glutting the markets 
near at hand, which are now forced to obtain their small supply from the Maine coast. 
These barren beds extend far up the river toward the town and into the mouths of 
the numerous creeks emptying into it, some of which are indicated in the diagram. 
I have been told by old clammers that at one time the mouths of these creeks were 
stocked with fine clams, and that in the late fall and early spring they afforded good 
shelter from the wind for men engaged in digging. The thatch banks, represented 
by short lines and stipples, contain at present great numbers of clams. The tough 
roots of the thatch vegetation, however, prevent digging, except along the edges and 
where the plants are scattered. 
