Marshfield.
Affairs at Marshfield are in practically the same state of inactivity as at Scituate. The town has considerable natural advantages, since the North River, which formerly made a wide sweep to the south before emptying into the ocean, has opened a new channel within the last ten years, forming many acres of excellent clam ground. A close season is maintained, although there has been considerable discontent on the part of certain individuals relative to this policy of the selectmen. A considerable quantity of clams, probably not exceeding 200 bushels per annum, are dug for home consumption. There are no shipments for market.
Summary of Industry.
| Number of men, | — |
| Capital invested, | — |
| Production, 1907:— | |
| Bushels, | 200 |
| Value, | $200 |
| Total area (acres):— | |
| Sand, | 40 |
| Mud, | 50 |
| Gravel, | 10 |
| Mussels and eel grass, | — |
| Total, | 100 |
| Productive area (acres):— | |
| Good clamming, | — |
| Scattering clams, | 30 |
| Barren area possibly productive (acres), | 30 |
| Waste barren area (acres), | 40 |
| Possible normal production, | $9,000 |
Duxbury.
The clam industry at Duxbury has a peculiar interest, owing to the many perplexing problems which it presents. A vast extent of tidal flats, far exceeding in area those of any other town in the State, and in a measure suitable for the production of clams, lie almost wholly barren. The enormous territory comprised in these flats exceeds 3,500 acres, or, roughly, 5½ square miles. This is greater than the combined clam area of Salisbury, Newburyport, Ipswich, Essex and Gloucester, which is the finest territory in the State, and produces most of the Massachusetts clams. Duxbury, with a greater area than all these towns, dug in 1907 about 700 bushels of clams,—an amount which could well have been produced from 2 acres of ground. An investigation into the history of the town shows us that this state of barrenness has not always existed. There was a time when Duxbury was justly celebrated for her shellfish, as is still shown by the allusions to Duxbury clams on the menus of many hotels and restaurants. The dealers at Taunton, Fall River and other Massachusetts cities formerly sent to Duxbury large orders for clams, which were always forthcoming. Now, as far as can be ascertained, not a single barrel is shipped out of the town from year to year.
This transition from a state of prosperity to one of almost total barrenness is replete with interest, and is difficult of solution. Doubtless several causes may have contributed to this general decline. In the first place, it is evident that the Duxbury flats were never in so flourishing a state of production as those of the Cape Ann district. This assumption is amply supported by historical records, and it is also supplemented, at least, by the fact that a great per cent. of the present territory is largely unfit for the production of clams in any quantity. As these flats have changed scarcely at all for many years, is it unreasonable to suppose that they ever have been very suitable since the first settlement of the country?
As for the historical records referred to, the weight of evidence everywhere tends to prove that many years ago there was a fairly large output of clams yearly from Duxbury. But while this output was large in itself, it was, in proportion to the possible area, exceedingly small. Mr. Ernest Ingersoll states that in 1879 there were yearly exported from Duxbury 5,000 bushels of clams. At that time, he says, the industry had declined. Clamming was then prosecuted with no such vigor as at the present time, for the price was low, and the demand, except for bait, by no means excessive. Clams had not yet come to be looked on as such important articles of food as at present, and the business of digging them as carried on then could have made little inroad on well-stocked flats. The great probability is that only a small percentage of the whole territory was ever very productive. An observer at the present time, viewing from an eminence the flats of Duxbury at low tide, could not help being struck with the singular appearance which they present. He would see spread out before him a broad expanse apparently of green meadows, with long, narrow streams of water winding in and out among them. These seeming meadows, stretching on mile after mile, broken here and there by a patch of clear sand, are the tidal flats of Duxbury, more than 2,700 acres of which are covered with a thick growth of eel grass.
How many years this eel grass has covered the flats no one knows. It shifts somewhat, as the ice in winter sometimes plows up an immense surface, stripping it of its green covering. For the most part it seems to grow steadily year after year, until the roots, decaying stalks and the fine sediment which they have collected build up a spongy crust over the true bed of the flat. It is this spongy, clayey soil which is the predominant type in the eel-grass region, though a large area is soft mud with little patches of hard sand. It does not seem surprising that clams are not abundant in this soggy medium, covered with its thick matting of grass. Clams do exist, however, for occasionally when the ice in the winter storms has scraped bare a section of these flats, scattering large clams can be found.