Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners 53 

 LENGTH OF SEASON. 



TONGING. 



Tongmen are licensed to work on the public oyster grounds 

 for a period of 237 days each year (September 1st to April 

 25th) ; but, on account of inclement weather, the amount of 

 time actually spent by tongmen at work is very much less than 

 this. 



Two plans were followed by the Commission to ascertain the 

 average amount of time annually spent by tongmen on the 

 oyster grounds, first by consulting with tongmen, second by 

 examining the records kept by the United States Weather 

 Bureau of the weather conditions which have prevailed on the 

 Chesapeake Bay during recent tonging seasons. 



Letters were written to five tongmen who, there was reason 

 to believe, keep a record .of the time spent on the oyster 

 grounds, requesting them to supply the Commission with 

 copies of records covering as- many years as possible showing 

 the number of days spent each season in tonging and the num- 

 ber of oysters caught. 



Replies were received from two of these men stating that 

 complete records of their work had not been kept. No replies 

 were received from two others, but from the other, Mr. Herman 

 A. Woodfield, Shadyside, Md., a most valuable and interesting 

 record covering five seasons, three of which are complete, was 

 received. Reduced to a tabular statement, this record is as- fol- 

 lows. (See page 55.) 



At the expense of considerable time and labor, the Director 

 of the Maryland section of the United States Weather Service, 

 Mr. C. F. von Hermann, supplied the Commission with records' 

 collected at Baltimore, Cambridge, Solomons and Annapolis, 

 showing the weather conditions which have prevailed in the 

 upper part of the Chesapeake Bay during every day of the 

 tonging seasons of 1903-1904, 1904-1905 and 1905-1906. From 

 these records, all Sundays, all days when more than one-fifth 

 inch of rain fell, all days when the wind blew with a velocity 



