50 Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners 



EQUIPMENT AND EXPENSE. 



TONGMEN. 



A natural oyster bar is a place to which oystermen resort 

 for the purpose of making a livelihood. It ceases to be a 

 natural bar when it no longer yields oysters in sufficient quan- 

 tities to induce oystermen to resort to it for this purpose. To 

 find an amount of money which represents the minimum liveli- 

 hood for which oystermen will continue to resort to an oyster 

 ground estimates, based upon information secured from oyster- 

 men, were made by the Commission of the annual expense to 

 which oystermen are put in order to catch oysters for a live- 

 lihood. 



The annual necessary expense of a tongman, according to 

 information thus secured, is as follows : 



Interest on an equipment valued at $200 $12.00 



License to tong on the public oyster grounds 3.50 



Repairs to boat, tongs, etc 9.50 



Hire of boy to cull, 100 days at $0.75 per day 75.00 



Living expenses for self and family, 237 16 .days at 



$0.75 per day 177.75 



Total $277.75 



Upon these figures the Commission based its decision that all 

 grounds located in tonging districts in Anne Arundel County 

 not in condition at the time surveyed to yield or to give 

 promise to yield in the near future a sufficient quantity of oys- 

 ters to tongmen to enable them to make a livelihood such as is- 

 represented by $277.75 per season are barren bottoms. 17 



page 57. 



important exception to this rule has been made by the Com- 

 mission to apply to all well-stocked oyster grounds located within areas 

 designated for tonging, covered with water more than twenty-five feet 

 in depth. All grounds so located, no matter how well stocked with 

 oysters, are, according to. the definition of a natural bar, barren bottoms 

 for, due to their great depth, they are not resorted to by tongmen for 



