Whether anything can be done with these eel-grass flats on a sufficiently large scale to render the undertaking profitable, and whether they would prove good ground for clam culture if the eel grass were removed, is a problem. However, the sand flats free from eel grass comprise nearly 800 acres,--an area sufficient in itself to furnish a very large industry for the town. Smooth, hard and unshifting, they have the appearance of being in every way suitable for the production of an enormous amount of shellfish. Yet, barring cockles, mussels and razor clams, shellfish are rare on most of these flats, which, in spite of their inviting appearance, are practically barren. The only places where clams are dug in any quantity is along the shore. Here little scattered patches, remnants perhaps of the former large supply, repay the clammer's toil with a scant return. Little or no effort is made to dig them on the main flats, and few are so dug unless they happen to be unearthed by accident when the men are searching for razor clams for bait. The supply is hardly adequate for home consumption and the demands for bait by local fishermen. Whether all the great tidal territory of Duxbury can ever be reconstructed into profitable clam ground is a difficult question. There exist, however, no known reasons why a fishery at least as flourishing as that of twenty years ago could not be re-established and indefinitely developed. A great industry was once in evidence here. Outside the boggy eel-grass marshes (doubtful territory at best) are wide expanses of clean sand flats, suitable in every way for the cultivation of clams. That the ingenuity of man properly administered can build up an enormous industry on these sand flats alone, no thoughtful person can doubt, and then utilization of these great barren Duxbury wastes will partially, at least, be accomplished. COMPARISON OF 1907 WITH 1879. ======+============+========= YEAR. | Production | Value. | (Bushels). | ------+------------+--------- 1879, | 5,000 | $2,500 1907, | 700 | 600 ======+============+========= SUMMARY OF INDUSTRY.