Rowley presents a more striking example of the decline in the shellfish industry than any other town in this region.
Four hundred acres of good flats border Plum Island and Rowley River within the town limits, but of these only 20 at most are economically productive. Eighty acres more are not entirely barren, though practically worthless, while the remaining 300, though almost all well adapted for clam culture, are barren.
The main type of soil is sand, and the sand flats, for the most part in Plum Island Sound, comprise some 250 acres. The remainder, 150 acres, is mostly mud in scattered sections along the Rowley River and in patches on the main flats. The only really productive flats are the little coves and creeks of Rowley River and the Knob Reefs in Plum Island Sound. The Knob Reef clam grounds produce very large and fine clams, which lie on the lower edge of the flat and are exposed only a short time every tide. Knob Reefs also has the distinction of possessing probably the finest clam set of its size in the State, which would furnish abundant opportunity for restocking all the barren Rowley River flats, if the town authorities had taken proper measures to transplant this seed. As it is, this extensive set, too thick for good growth, is rapidly wasting away.
The history of the industry is one of steady decline. Reliable evidence exists to show that almost all the flats of Rowley once produced clams, and that large areas now waste were formerly productive. That these immense barren areas, possessing such an enormous latent wealth, should be allowed to remain thus unimproved, is a most conclusive argument for the need of radical action. No settled attempt, however, except for a single closed season in 1906, has ever been made by the clammers or town authorities to better the conditions, or to check the decline in the productive territory that remains.
Summary of Industry.
| Number of men, | 15 |
| Capital invested, | $800 |
| Production, 1907:— | |
| Bushels, | 2,000 |
| Value, | $1,500 |
| Total area (acres):— | |
| Sand, | 250 |
| Mud, | 150 |
| Gravel, | — |
| Mussels and eel grass, | — |
| Total, | 400 |
| Productive area (acres):— | |
| Good clamming, | 20 |
| Scattering clams, | 80 |
| Barren area possibly productive (acres), | 300 |
| Waste barren area (acres), | — |
| Possible normal production, | $60,000 |
Ipswich.
Ipswich is second only to Newburyport in the production of clams, and has perhaps even greater possibilities of development. The clam territory of the two towns, while nearly equal in extent, is, however, markedly different in general characteristics. The flats of Newburyport, while few in number, are broad, continuous, and have a great degree of similarity throughout. The flats of Ipswich, on the other hand, are divided into a great number of relatively small sections, widely diversified in character, and scattered along an extensive coast line. As these flats are in many respects the most interesting and important of any town in the State, it seems well to examine them in detail.
Four distinct divisions can be distinguished in the clam territory of this town: Ipswich River, Plum Island, Green's Creek and Roger Island, and Essex River flats.
Taken in the order named, the Ipswich River has in itself a great variety of clam ground. Both sides of the river for nearly 3 miles are fringed with bars, mainly of mud though sandy near the mouth. Some of the mud flats are so soft that they are practically barren, or given up largely to mussel beds; while much of the sand, as, e.g., the main portion of the High Sands, is too shifting to be valuable. The larger part of these river flats are, however, productive.