Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners 181 

 Foundation of Prejudice Against Oyster Culture. 



One of the deepest prejudices which exists at the present time 

 among oystermen in Maryland against oyster culture can be 

 traced directly to the failure of planters hitherto to recognize 

 the natural division of labor which exists in oyster culture and 

 the biological and physical conditions upon which these 

 divisions depend. 



Under the Five Acre Law many lots 52 were taken up for the 

 purpose of oyster culture and the owners in many cases set 

 about planting shells to secure a catch of seed oysters. 



The lots taken up under this law were usually located on 

 inshore areas in rivers whose waters do not flow swiftly and 

 were not therefore adapted to securing a set of seed oysters to 

 planted shells, although usually well adapted for growing 

 oysters from planted seed. These planters from their continued 

 failure to get satisfactory results by planting shells became 

 convinced that oyster culture on barren bottoms is a failure 

 and that the natural bars are alone adapted for producing 

 oysters. This opinion being generally held among planters has 

 convinced oystermen that planters do not want the barren 

 bottoms and that this latest effort on the part of the State to 

 encourage oyster culture is really an attempt to open the 

 natural bars to lease. 



Everyone should be convinced that some barren bottoms 

 can be so managed as to produce oysters of a quality as fine and 

 in quantities as great as the natural bars, by study of the condi- 

 tions under which oyster culture is now thriving on the barren 

 bottoms of other States. In Connecticut at the present time 

 the amount of bottom under successful oyster cultivation^ ten 

 times as great as the total area of the natural bars of the State, 

 and in Khode Island there is an even greater difference between 



52The use to which the greater number of the lots taken up under the 

 Five Acre Law have been put is that of bedding oysters, an industry 

 showing commendable enterprise and thrift on the part of oystermen, 

 but one not to be classed as oyster culture. The object in bedding 

 oysters is not to increase the number of oysters in the State, but to 

 provide a convenient place to keep the oysters taken from the natural 

 bars until they can be advantageously placed upon the market. 



