just the same as from a ton of the smaller shells, notwithstanding that only half as many shells are handled. We are thus, when using the smaller shells, depleting the mussel beds at twice the necessary rate without any corresponding advantage.

WASTE ILLUSTRATED.

There is given below a table that will repay careful examination as illustrating the wastefulness of using the small shells. While the figures must be understood to be only approximate, they are based upon careful weights and counts of a number of shells from several localities. The shells were all "niggerheads" and were all obtained after shipment to factories.

[14]The first two columns show the limits of size for each lot used, the greatest diameter being the basis of measurement.

The third column shows the approximate number of pairs of shells composing a ton, the unit of purchase; multiplying this number by 2 would give the number of single shells per ton.

In the fourth column there is given, in the case of the critical sizes, the number of 18-line blanks readily taken from a single shell (which is one-half the number yielded by a pair of shells, or an individual mussel).

The fifth column indicates the number of gross of blanks, by computation, yielded by a ton of shells. This computation is based upon the cutting of 18-line blanks (not the larger 20-line blanks that have been taken from some of the larger shells in the illustration). Some of these shells are cut excessively close to the tips, on account of taking too many larger line blanks. It must be understood that different sized shells are adapted for different lines of buttons. The data herein is for comparative purposes only.

Table of Sizes, Weights, and Button Production for Niggerhead Shells
(Approximate Figures).

[B] At the time of making this table only a few of the larger-sized shells were available, so the estimates of blanks are less accurate.

It may be seen from the table that a marketable ton of niggerheads could be composed of the shells of 3,200 or of 33,000 mussels, according as the shells were 4 inches in length or only 1½ inches. As a matter of fact, no marketed ton is ever composed of mussels of an exactly uniform size; furthermore, the extremely large niggerhead shells are very rare and generally not very desirable on account of inferior quality and disproportionate waste. A ton of shells from a region of depletion will also include a number of the smallest and not strictly marketable shells.

[15]Now, let us take a concrete illustration: Several counts of mussels gathered by shellers in the white River near Clarendon, Ark., were made in October, 1913; from these an average was taken that fairly represents the catches being made at that time in that region. It was found that 60 per cent by number of the shells taken were of a size less than 2 inches in greatest dimension; also that a ton of shells comprised 20,500 pairs, of which 12,300 were less than 2 inches. Now, it is evident that if these smaller shells were returned to the bed we would be depleting the bed less than one-half as fast as at present. This would be the substantial advantage that such a size limit would have to the mussel beds; and any advantage to the mussel beds is an ultimate advantage to the fishermen, manufacturers, and all others in any way dependent upon the perpetuation of the mussels. Under the working of a 2-inch size limit, 60 shells out of every 100 then being taken on the niggerhead beds of that vicinity would have been thrown back. This seems to be asking a good deal, but not so much as at first appears, for the undersized shells constitute only 38 per cent of the weight or selling value of the shells taken.

On the other hand, both sheller and manufacturer would be saved the trouble of handling over and over again an unnecessarily large number of shells. A ton of shells (from the same locality) comprising only those above 2 inches in greatest dimension would contain