Falmouth
There is practically no quahaug industry in Falmouth. Hardly 100 bushels are dug annually, and those only for home consumption. A few quahaugs are perhaps shipped by the oystermen.
This town, with its numerous inlets, bays and brackish water ponds, offers perhaps as fine an opportunity for shellfish culture, especially for quahaugs, as exists in Massachusetts. There is no reason why the water of Waquoit Bay and the other brackish ponds should not produce a great supply of quahaugs, if properly worked.
Quahaugs are found mostly in scattering quantities over a large area in Waquoit Bay and in small quantities on the north and west side of Great Pond, comprising a total of nearly 400 acres. Not all this ground, which is the greater part mud, is capable of producing quahaugs, but many parts could produce good harvests. On the bay side of the town small patches of good quahaugs are found at North Falmouth, Squeteague Pond, West Falmouth harbor on the southeast side, and a few are found in Hadley harbor, Naushon. These, together with the small patches in Great Pond, comprise about 1 acre of good quahaug ground, and are mostly dug by summer people.
In the past twenty-five years there has been a great decline in the quahaug industry, especially in Waquoit Bay, which to-day barely produces 50 bushels. A. Howard Clark states, in 1879:7—
Quahaugs are plenty in Waquoit Bay, and are gathered and eaten by the villagers, but none are shipped. It is estimated that about 500 bushels of quahaugs are annually consumed by the people of Falmouth town.
Summary of Industry.
| Area of quahaug territory (acres), | 400 |
| Number of men, | — |
| Number of boats, | — |
| Value of boats, | — |
| Number of dories, | — |
| Value of dories, | — |
| Value of implements, | — |
Production.
| “Little necks”:— | |
| Bushels, | 10 |
| Value, | $25 |
| Quahaugs:— | |
| Bushels, | 90 |
| Value, | $90 |
| Total:— | |
| Bushels, | 100 |
| Value, | $115 |