[Illustration: =Gathering "Seed" Oysters in the Weweantit River, Wareham, May 6, 1908.=--The natural beds of the town of Wareham had been closed for seven years, and on this date were opened for the period of one week for the inhabitants of the town to gather "seed" oysters, the photograph was taken on the opening day, and shows the oystermen at work tonging the "seed" oysters. In the foreground is a loaded skiff, ready to have its contents estimated by the inspector, who declares the number of bushels. The tongers pay the town 10 cents per bushel for the privilege of gathering the oysters, and sell them for 35 cents per bushel to the planters, thus realizing a profit of 25 cents.] [Illustration: =Typical Steam Dredger.=--The oyster boat of Mr. James Monahan of Wareham, showing oyster dredge and hoist. The large cans aboard the boat contain young flatfish from the Woods Hole Hatchery of the United States Fish Commission. Mr. Monahan is distributing these in Wareham river.] [Illustration: =Typical Oyster Schooner.=--Oyster schooner loaded with 1,935 bushels of Wareham "seed" for L. Dodge, Providence River. This "seed" was taken in May, 1908, from the natural oyster bed in the Agawam River, which had been closed for the past three years.] Transcriber's Notes: Simple spelling, grammar, and typographical errors were silently corrected. Anachronistic and non-standard spellings retained as printed. P. 92 added "(All values expressed as per cent.)" in lieu of repeating per-cent. comment in every column header. Italics markup is enclosed in _underscores_. Bold markup is enclosed in =equals=. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Report upon the Mollusk Fisheries of Massachusetts, by Commissioners on Fisheries and Game