The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-09-18
lSet Getting Poorer Year. By Year Because of Pollution of Waters Through Great Manufacturing Industries This Years Failure Con firms Suspicious of Ex- tinction of Culture Here.
Puny Set Lately Developed Off Stratford and Milford Will Not Suffice and Many Thousands of Dollars Worth of Work in Pre-
 paration For Annal liar
 vest Becomes Total Loss.

With nothing but very late and a lvery small set in waters off Bridgc- hort. oystermen in this vicinity have
 become further convinced that the industry in Connecticut and Massa- lchusetts is facing extinction.
 Half a million bushels of shells have been planted in the Bridgeport
 waters by the Digger growers alone
 at cost of fr<m seven to eight cents la bushel. With an initial loss of about $40.0b0. oyster companies oper- Sating from Bridgeport are now engag- Cd in cleaning up the fruitless mess lat a daily expense that will last un- til winter. It will have cost huh- idreds of thousands this year to try
 oyster-growing property of the wa ifrs et
 The Norwalk beds have been a failure this year again and the New Haven and Bridgeport beds showed lvery poorly. Last week a late set. livery puny. developed off Milford and Bridgeport. but oystermen believe the shellfish have little chancs to sur lv1vo.
 ! The findings this year but bear out the contention of leading oystermen that unless Connecticut and Massa- chusetts Ecopt conservation methods at once. ,fe business, for which this isection was once noted. will die.
 Seor by, year it has grown worse. they say. because of pollution of the waters, by industrial concerns. Rres- then men who made their money at the business and got out of it in time.
 This state is destroyingi one of it's SofI ~ IC Wheeler, manager of the big Conncc- ticut Oyster Farms Co.,, which con-. ltrols in the neighborhood of S,0u0 ceres of. beds. tpd&y. Ills concern a,one has suffered loss In planting lCf s35,0O0./
 'Tn the memory of such old-time i oysterrnen as Captain William Lewis and Frederick s. Beardsley of Strat- ford. natural beds existed under the Yellow Mill and Berkshire Mill bridges. The natural developing place of the l'oyster is not in deep, cold water, but in the mouths of harboAs. Nature in- ten,ded oysters, clans and such she'll fish to live there. but it never counted on the presence of acids. dye-stuffs and other destroying waste matter in wa lterways.
 ll vegetable matter and minute life of many sorts, falling into the rivers and creeks, decays, and from them other forms of life> >develop. Washed to the mouths of these inlets, this matter be- comes the ideal food for shellfish. Even young men can remember when this. function was-performed in this neighborhood, at the Housatonic, for instance when clans, Holsters and oys- ters' were plentiful.
 "Shellfish can't thrive on acids and dye-stuffs, however. Neither can the fish of other kinds survive. Connecti- cut waterways were once noted for their shadI salmon and strfped> bass. These have been driven out. Some still spawn in the waters-but the small fry can't exist. Tt should be a source pf humiliation for Connecticut that tAe Northwest Iships salmon, shad roe and even roe shad here in car load lots. The wa ters of the Northwest were stocked from the waters here. Now the species is almost extinct in this neighborhood, its natural abode.
 Why is this? The Northwest pro- tects its resources. True that New England is an industrial section. but that 6QOulOu [ prevent IL lioih SoAScAv ing its natural resources. This stuff ,that poilutes the waters may be carried to some place where it may be re- duced or otherwise disposed of"
 Those oysters that have their origin an this section now, have to be trans1 planted to make them marketable. Some of them to go Greenport or lNorthport, and more to the south side of Long Island for transplanting. It requires about four yeEs before marketable oyster is produced.
 Bridgeport oystermen are making small profit on the transplanted sets of other years. likeness for the nine or ten men employed on each of the scores of boats, besides the hundreds of other workers, is faced. besides the great loss. Some oystermen are con- eidering moving.
 Ho ov,1.V1 M T,1fhi11