The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-01-14
THE SCARBORO CLAM.
Time and Change are Disturbing
His COntentment.
HARD WORK AND NOT VERY HIGH
PAY FOR THE DIGGER.

The Flats of scarboro are Famous Haunts
for the Clam-Some of the Habits of the
Bivalve, and Conditions Affecting His
Increase Scarboro CLAIMS in Many Mar
kets.
How many of the PRESS readers who
enjoy clam bake in the summer or a
chowder in winter think of the men and
boys who earn their bread by digging
the CLAIMS from the flats and preparing
them for the market? The town of Scar
boro has long been famous for its CLAIMS.
Three rivers flow through the town, the
Spurwink, Nonesuch, Libby and Dun
stan. Each of these rivers is bordered
by acres of flats that are filled with
CLAIMS. These flats are covered with
water at high tide, but as soon as the
tide Gibbs you will see men with teams OF
all kinds moving on to the flats. Each
man has an implement called digger,
and several baskets. As the water leaves
the flats men and boys in boats and
teams take possession, and work begins.
One who has never dug CLAIMS little
knows the hard work done by these men,
who supply the market with this favor
lite shell fish. Bent over nearly double
they drive their long sharp diggers into
the flats. Turning a portion over, they
quickly pick up the CLAIMS and throw the
earth behind them. In this position
thew work hours. No matter how cold
the day you will find these hardy clam
diggers at work.
In about six hours the water again
flows over the fats, and the boats and
teams, loaded with CLAIMS, leave. Some
go to the canning houses, where they are
steamed, picked over by girls, packed in
cans and shipped to all parts OF the
globe Some go into small houses on
the banks, and others to the clam dig
gers homes, where the family assist IN
preparing them for the market. Some
are shipped in the shell, but large part
are opened and sold by the gallon. They
90 all over the State and to Boston. The
prices received are from thirty to fifty
cents per bushel, or forty cents per gal
Ion.
You may ask, Do these men make
good pay? The answer is that some do
and all make living. In times past
prices were much higher than at present
and the supply was large. A larger por-
ton of flats in Libby and Nonesuch rivers
has been destroyed within the past fifteen
years by moving sand. The closing OF
Little river near Old Orchard by the
r q To-.
on Pine Point to change. This covered
acres of clam flats in the river CLAIMS
cannot live in moving sand. They have
the power to go down into the flats but
cannot come up; and as they must reach
the water with their mouths every tide
to feed few inches of sand will smother
them. CLANS would be improved by
judicious digging. If the flats IN the
rivers of ScarbOro were left unmolested
for a few wears they would be so thickly
populated with CLAIMS that they would
be Door and worthless for marked. The
clam must have food, like any other fish,
and If left to themselves would soon over
stock the flats.
CLAIMS breed in Mayor June. They
throw their spawn into the water, where
the embryo CLAIMS form, and in their early
day drift with the tide. These embryonic
particles soon take the form Of the clam,
and as they move with the tide they
catch in the mud or sand on the top of
the flats. A clam can go down into the
fats, but cannot go up, SO little clam
must begin at the top and go down. AS
they increase in size they go deeper, so
we always find the largest CLAIMS in the
deepest mud. The time required for a
clam to grow to a size suitable for mar
rot is aho11t three wears. q, u.