The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1886-01-26
FARMS UNDER WATER.
ruELoNG ISLAND OYSTER BUSINESS
An Industry that Yields a Good Revenue
but Demands Hard Work.
from the New York SUM-

The oyster market at the foot of West
10th street Is n of the sights of the city.
From a distance it looks like a very COM
pact row of two-story wooden buildings,
modelled like cross-road groceries.
From across the street the buildings are
seen to float on big square boxes that
rise and fall with the tide, SO that while
the main floors of the buildings are &C.
c%asionally on a level with the street they
are usually some distance below it. The
houses are moored a few feet away from
the bulkhcad, and arc reached by wood
en- bridges with cross pieces nailed on
them so that people will not slip when
passing up and down.
The houses contain two rooms and a
basement. The first floor is the sales
where no end of tongs and drcdgcs and
dunnage for the oyter boats are slowed,
and down in the basement, or what q
sailor would call "'tween decks" is the
storeroom for the oysters while awaiting
a customer. Each building is the head
quarters of a wholesale dealer. Behind
these buildings lies the oyster feet.
The oysters sold in the market usually
come from the shores of New York Bay,
or from the coasts of Long Island and
Connecticut. They are brought here
from the beds in little sloops that will
hold from 400 to 600 bushels each, but
there are a good many schooners in the
trade, and many steam tugs. The oysters
from Virginia waters which find their
way to this market are brought in smart
schooncrs and by rail from Baltimore.
These vessels are packed so closely in
the slip that n stranger would find it
difficult to get enough clear water to
float a yawl in. The slender masts
stand up like poles in II hop yard, only
much closer together. And yet it is no
thing to see a fleet Of adozen
sloops arrive, and without creating any
disturbance worm their way through the
compact mass in waiting.
A well-dressed business man stood on
q big timber stretching along the bulk
head before the oyster market yesterday
and c~ontentcdly watched the driver of a
cart dump a load o: empty oyster shells
on the bulkhead, while two other men
in blue flannel shirts carried baskets of
oysters from one of the buildings to q
two-horse wagon, to be carried to some
customer about town.
In answer to q question the business
man said:
"Those oysters in the wagon are from
freeport, Long lsland.'
= ''Natural beds thcre2"
Mot that l ever heard of. They are
obtained from beds that are cultivated
about as carefully rs market gardens.
Jones' Inlet sets up in behind o long
range of land dunes off Freeport, and
from the dunes to the main land there
is a stretch of salt meadows that are cut
up in all directions by natural bitches.
Where the bottom is good the inhabitants
Of the village stake off patches of three
acres each, and SOW their seed oysters.
About everybody in Freeport is engaged
in the oyster business, but Their is plenty
of land ~thereabouts for others to rent for
that purpose"
s'Rent9n
"Bless you, yes. They pay bigger rent
for land under water than for choice
farming lands in some places. The price
is SIS an acre.
''Where does the seed come from9'
ga good deal of it from New Haven.
The Newport people buy of the oyster
farmers who own the beds near New
Haven, which are sowed every year
with oyster shells like those justdumped
out of the cart. The spat from the
oysters in the proper season falls on the
shells, and after u time the little oyster
shells are developed. Thus it some
times happens that two or more oysters
are brought up adhering to each other.
The New Haven people charge so cents
a bushel for the rakings from the bed,
old shells and new, Just as they come up
with the dredge. The freight to Free
port is about 10 cents a bushcl more.
Some of the oystermcn get their seed
up the Hudson. Little sloops can be
seen at anchor gathering them during
the season oil the way from Spuyten
Duyvll to Tarrytown. They have the
flavor of sludge acid when taken up, but
they lose that after q year on Freeport
beds. The New Haven oysters are
usually transplanted in the spring v hen
two or three seasons old. The OYSTER
men usually expect to take up from 500
to 600 bushels of oysters from an acre,
although the average is rather less. AS
/. oysters sell from $1.25 to So a bushel
the skilful oysterman is pretty sure to
make 81, 600 a year or more off of his
three acre farm under water. He has
to hire a man to help him get up his
crop when the season comes on, and he
has some expenses for his boat and tools.
Then he has to pay for watchmen who
guard the beds from pirates day and
night. The work is very hard, for the
oysters are not marketed till cold wea-
Their comes on, and if there is any place
where the wind is piercing it is out on
those meadows. James Bennett and
Thomas Beecham of Mount Sinai mar
rowly escaped being frozen to death
while fishing in the Sound last winter.
They got caught in the ice and had to
pass the night there"
care the oysters taken up by men on
the decks of the sloops2"
"No; the oysters are taken up in duck
breasted yawls, carving from ten TO