The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-08-11
''SHELLERS" HAVE
 CENTURY IN WHICH TO CLEAN UP RIVER
Especial to The Farmer.)

SnSllS WA1Ch nave Q06I IHS 4AlOSls GAOAAAA- nent feature of the landscape of KneIPs Island for several months have all disappeared and the shelters have already begun the work of gath ering another crop for next years market. This year about 1000e bush els were gathered and they have all been sold and distributed on the oyster beds in Long Island Sound. The price this year was uniformly six cents per busheL This means 5000 was brought to town this season in cold cash and distributed among those engaged in the industry.
 Twenty years ago, with the develop raent of the oyster industry the plant ing of shells upon the oyster beds be- gan. Itwas found that the spawn of the oyster readily attached itself to the first clean substance 1t met after it had been deposited by the parent biz vialve Many subtances were expert- mented with among them crushed stone, but nothing answered the pur- pose as well as the abandoned shells of the oyster itself. The shells turned out by the big opening plants are all utilized for this purpose but along the sound the shells derived from this x source would not go far In supplying the demand. The oysters raised in the Sound, especially on the north shore are taken to other waters and trans planted before they can be marketed Some go to the Great. South Bay; others to the Narra gansett bay and some are taken to the north shore of Long Is- land.
 As long back as there is any one to. remember there has existed in the mouth of the Housatonic river an inn mei1se bed of shells and the inroads of the shelters for twenty years has not made any apparent impression on the deposit. Fsorunerly the sheller anchor ed his skiff on the bed as soon as the tide was low enough for his oysteG Iongs to reach bottom. He industrious ly with much muscular effort dug holes in the bottom of the river which consisted alonst entirely of the shells of dead biva1ves with binding of sand. When the tide rose so that his tongs would not reach the bottom he quit for the day usually very tired with perhaps 50 bushels of shells in his skiff It was slow laborious way of gettins a living but the rivermen were hardy and they did not mind the hardships attendant upon it. There was and now is much lost time on account of bad weather and altogether it was no bon anza. Tears ago an erterprising Stratford oysterman conceived the idea of taking the shells from the river with a. steam dredge but his plan was in operation only a short time before the shelters went to the legislature and secured the passage of statue which forbids the taking of shells in the river except by hand and thus the industry was preserved to the shelters and the cheaper method was abandoned
 The same oysternan who had con- ceived of taking the shells by a dredge appeared at the next session of the leg isIature and obtained permit to build dock at Short Beach The United States government also gave it's per- mission and the work of dredging channel to the new dock was begun At was apparent from the start that there was no necessity for a. dock at the point stipulated but pile driver appeared and few piles were driven, enough to create suspicions that a dock was intended to be built there Some of the rotted piles and stumps are still visible in the sand of Short Beach. The permit to dig the channel to the dock was valuable for this channel would pass directly through the heaviest de- posit of shells in the river. Barge after barge was loaded with the shells taken from the channel and dumped on the oyster grounds to catch the young spawn. This oysternnan got his shells very cheap that year but never after, for the statue prevented any such sub terfuges.
 It is estimated that over 5000. 900 bushels of shells have been taken from the river in the last twenty years and the beds seem to be as thick as ever. Exannina tions of the shells by geolo- gists have given no support to the theory advanced by some that the shells are really fossils. They belong to lIAGre existing VdI16uSS DuL snow marks of long submerSion in the salt water and the abrasion of the running water has rounded off the edges and some times reduced the size to small fractions of what it was originally Most of these come from the common oyster The theory advanced by the rivermen is that oysters have lived In the river for. centuries even before the country was settled by white men. They originally existed in the Hous-
 
 tances to the north Men are now liv- ing who can remember when the finest oysters obtainable came from the riv- CT in the vicinity of Ansonia and Derby and even farther up stream. The grad nal increase of manufacturing plants along the rivers and the poisonous na- ture of the refuse dumped into them from these factories has virtually des- t-oyed all animal life in these waters There are now no oysters c1aIns in Beach and the few that exist below that are inconsidera ble. The shells of these dead oysters and c1ans have been washed down by freshets and the ordinary flow of the river until they have reached the deeper waters and the broadening of the, stream near the mouth Here they have lodged for centuries but in larger quantities in later years for the benefit of the shelters of the present day. It is sesti- mated that there are shells enough in this immense bed at the present rate of consumption to keep the shel- 1ers busy for the next 100 years
 The shells are sold to a resident Buyer for the big oyster com panies CT to a contractor who has agreed to finnish a certain amount on a cer- tain date. The buyer takes the catch of each sl1eller and pays him in cash making his own returns to the com pany later on.
 Oysters generally began to spawn the last week in July but this date is variable. Sometimes very little spawn is seen until September Cold seasons are believed to affect the Ie.-.c. .i,.z.