The Plum Island division comprises Lufkins, Point Peter, Appletons, Foresides and several other minor flats. Of these, Lufkins is very important. It occupies a semicircular depression on the coast of Plum Island, and, owing to its peculiar location, the swift current which flows past its outer edge makes a double eddy at both ebb and flood tide. These eddies sweep gently over its broad surface, and deposit a fine silt which has made the characteristic soil a hard, bluish clay. This is the only important clay flat of this region. The total area of Lufkins is 46 acres. The outer border to the north is mud, becoming soft; to the south, sandy. The portion near shore is, as has been stated, a clayey soil, and it is here that clams are found abundantly. An exceptionally good set of 1 to 2 inch clams occupies from 3 to 4 acres of this portion. Though clams are numerous, the exceeding hardness of the soil makes digging rather difficult.
Point Peter, or "P'int" Peter, is also an important flat, comprising altogether 28 acres, though about 7 acres of the outer portion extend far into the current, and are of so shifting and sandy a nature as to be practically worthless. Most of the remainder is mud, varying from sand and hard mud on the outside to soft mud in the creeks that lead into the main land. The central portion of the flat is peculiarly adapted to the culture of clams, however, and is very productive.
Appleton's flat comprises about 6 acres of hard sand, verging into mud, thickly strewn with old clam shells. It lies at the mouth of Perkins and Pine Creeks, which run for about a mile into the main land of Plum Island, and contain nearly 25 acres each of fairly productive mud flats. Appleton's is a valuable flat, and the clams dug here are large.
The Foresides is a thatch island a little over a mile in length, lying in the mid channel of Plum Island Sound. The flats which surround it on all sides are practically all sand, and comprise about 80 acres. The whole western side is more or less productive, though the outer edge, where the strong cross currents of the channel sweep over, is too much rippled to be suitable for clam growth. The strip of sand along the northern and northeastern sides, though rather narrow and limited in area, is productive, while most of the southeastern portion, which projects far into the channel, is barren and totally unadapted for soft clams, though bedded with sea clams. The productive sections of this flat are much dug, and altogether it is one of the most important of the Ipswich clam grounds.
The west coast of Plum Island Sound, comprising the Green's Creek and Roger Island territories, extends from the Ipswich to the Rowley rivers. This division contains the bulk of the waste and barren flats of the town, although there is exceptionally good clamming in Stacy's Creek, Third Creek and the "Nutfield."
The Essex River region is rather remote for most of the clammers, and hard to reach, but furnishes on the whole some of the very best digging. The three main flats of this division are the Essex beach, Wheeler's, and the Spit. Essex beach has a very good set, evenly sprinkled over the ridgy, shifting bars that skirt the channel.
Wheeler's is an irregular sand bar, occupying about 77 acres. Fully one-half of this is very productive, and in the main portion occurs another thick set very similar to that on Essex beach.
The Spit, mainly sand or sandy mud, lies in the three towns of Ipswich, Essex and Gloucester. The whole area is some 300 acres, about a third lying within the town of Ipswich. This whole bar is so liable to change that any calculations based on its precise area or location are decidedly unreliable. Very good digging occurs, however, in limited areas on the north and west sides of the Ipswich territory.
These four divisions comprise the clamming territory of Ipswich, and aggregate 970 acres, of which 390 acres is sand and 500 mud. This also includes 15 acres of mussels scattered along Ipswich River, Plum Island and Green's Creek region, and about 10 acres of eel grass in various localities. Over 800 acres is more or less productive, about half being good clamming.
About 50 regular clammers depend upon these flats for a living, though 136 permits were issued in 1907. Here, owing to the greater distances to be traversed, many power boats are used. Nearly $7,500 is invested in the industry, and 25,000 bushels of clams, at a valuation of $18,750, are annually produced. The relative decrease in price as compared with Newburyport is due to the fact that shucking is not so extensively practised here.