A CURIOUS INDUSTRY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 170, 20 July 1935, Page 10 (Supplement)

A CURIOUS INDUSTRY.

WORMS FOR FISHERMEN. All along the Maine coast a new industry has grown rapidly in the past few years—worms! The worms dug are the blood and the sand worm commonly known as clam worjis. They are from 4in to 12in long, and are found abundantly mi the mud and clam flats along the shores. The diggers work at low tides, as do the clam diggers. A smart cliap avill get from 500 to 1000 worms a day, which means a wage of from 3 dollars 75 cents to 7 dollars 50 cents, as he is paid 75 cents for 100.

These worms are shipped to New York, where they are used by sportsmen for salt-water fisliin<r. Shippers are paid one dollar for 100 by the New York buyer. The fishermen on the steamers that take o'it fishing parties pay from 35 to CO cents a dozen. At Boothbay Harbour alone 100 men and boys are engaged in digging clam worms, and the shipment from that port is 25,000 to 30,000 daily.

At Pino Point fully as large a clam worm industry thrives through the summer months. The worms are shipped in baskets between layers of rockweed.