MARYLAND: OYSTER INDUSTRY. 443 



gate value of $000,000. About one thousand men compose their crews, and the wages of these will 

 amount to about $140,000 a season. 



The oysters taken north for immediate use cost on an average about 25 cents a bushel, while 

 plants during the past season probably averaged 10 cents a bushel about 3 cents more than the 

 price during the previous season. 



PACKING. Having given an account of the oystermen, their boats, &c., it is now appropriate 

 to present some statistics of the number of bushels of oysters caught and the disposition made of 

 them. The most important factor in this connection being the packing trade, I will endeavor to 

 show the extent of this business as compiled from the books of the different firms engaged in it. 



About 1834 or 1S35 a small packing-house was opened in Baltimore, but it soon passed out 

 of existence, and no record of it can now be obtained. The first important enterprise in this line 

 was the establishment of a packing-house in 1836 by Mr. C. S. Maltby, a native of Connecticut. 

 Mr. Maltby, who, by the way, is still in the business, confined his operations exclusively to the raw 

 trade for a number of years. As his business increased he established a line of wagons from 

 Baltimore to Pittsburgh, and was thus enabled to supply the West with fresh oysters long before 

 the Baltimore and Ohio Eailroad had stretched out its track to that then distant region. Mr. A. 

 Field was the first to develop in Baltimore the steam trade. He began a few years after Mr. 

 Maltby. His oysters were steamed and then hermetically sealed in small tin cans. 



Having been once established, the trade increased quite rapidly, and for some years oyster- 

 packing, both raw and steamed, was very profitable; but as there is an abundant chance of 

 financial success through dishonest means, with but little danger of detection, many unscrupulous 

 firms engaged in the steamed oyster business, and by packing "light weight", i. e., putting in a 

 1-pound can about 6 or 7 ounces of oysters and filling the remaining space with water, and about 

 the same proportion of oysters and water in larger cans, and either selling them under some 

 fictitious brand, or else entirely omitting any name, they succeeded in gaining for the packing 

 trade of Baltimore a by no means enviable reputation. To enable them to compete with these 

 "tricks in trade," reliable houses were in some cases forced to follow their example, as in many 

 places it was found impossible to sell standard goods at fair prices, while light weights could of 

 course be sold at much lower figures. In answer to the question as to whether light weights 

 were sold extensively in the West, I was lately informed by a gentleman from that section that up 

 to within a year or so it had been almost impossible to obtain full weights, but that some improve- 

 ment had lately taken place in this respect. The same gentleman, on returning to the West, sent 

 me the names of three packing-houses whose names appeared on the cans and whose oysters were 

 light weights. An examination proved the names to be fictitious, there being no such firms in 

 Baltimore. Close competition, by causing a cutting in prices, helped on the trouble, and for 

 several years previous to 1878 the business was very unprofitable. In 1878, to save themselves, 

 the packers formed a combination known as the "Union Oyster Company," embracing all the 

 leading firms engaged in the steaming business, with the exception of three or four, who, having 

 well-known standard brands, preferred to fight it out alone. The formation of the Union Company 

 was, in itself, an evidence that the trade was in a deplorable condition. The company was 

 established with a capital of $300,000, the stock being divided among the twenty-three firms who 

 entered it, in proportion to the amount of business previously done by them. The affairs of the 

 company are managed by a president, a vice-president, a secretary, and the twenty-three firms who 

 constitute the board of directors. In joining the company each firm entirely relinquishes their 

 own steauiing business (although they may still conduct the raw trade) and act merely as agents 

 for the union. All oysters are bought and packed by the union and then sold to the packers at 



