Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners '27 



having been long since exhausted, the Commission has, with 

 the approval of the Board of Control, reproduced them from 

 the Revised Statutes of 1902 down to date in an Appendix to 

 the present report, and the Commission considers this a fitting 

 time to introduce some matters illustrating the estimation in 

 which our system of Shell Fish laws is held by other States 

 whose oyster interests much exceed our own in extent. 



"It is now about twenty-five years since the establishment of 

 the present system of laws governing the shell fish business in 

 the State of Connecticut and during that time there has been 

 a constant improvement in the system, a continual readjust- 

 ment through the knowledge gained by experience and a 

 readaptation to the changing conditions, which conditions 

 have advanced also,. as the progressive and enterprising growers- 

 improved their apparatus and their methods. The basic prin- 

 ciples are the same but many changes and readjustments, as 

 has been said, have been made. During that period also the 

 business has developed enormously and has come to be one of 

 the important industries of the Staite. Other States whose 

 waters afford even greater facilities for the growth and devel- 

 opment of the oyster business, but in which it has been allowed 

 to be carried on by the antiquated and inadequate methods of 

 the past have watched the development of the industry in 

 Connecticut and have sought to learn of her improved system 

 of State management. The laws of this State governing the 

 cultivation of shell fish have been sent to every State in the 

 Union, which has any considerable shell fish interests and many 

 of them have been incorporated into their own laws. 



"Among the most recent of the States to adopt a new system 

 and to find a part of the Connecticut methods of advantage is 

 Maryland. While she looks upon her oyster grounds as a source 

 of revenue to the State, as has always been her view, she still 

 finds many of the Connecticut laws agreeable to her purpose 

 and she has recently constituted a Shell Fish Commission 

 which has charge of the management of her shell fish interests 

 and the administration of her laws. 



"In May, 1906, several members and other officers of this 

 newly constituted Commission visited Connecticut to see and 



