Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners 51 



It is safe .to say that no tongman who works regularly on the 

 public oyster grounds makes less than f 277.75 during a tonging 

 season and that very few tongmSn would continue to take out 

 licenses to tong if they did not expect to get more than this 

 amount for their season's work. By referring to the tong- 

 man's record, printed on page 55, it will be seen that the 

 average wage per day % for one tongman for three years was 

 about $5.00, or nearly twice the amount ($2.78) which has been 

 adopted by the Commission as the minimum wage for which 

 tongmen can afford to resort to the public oyster grounds. 18 



DREDGERS AND SCRAPERS. 19 



The cost of equipping and operating boats of small capacity 

 for dredging or scraping is much less than the cost of equip- 



the purpose of making a livelihood. Should well-stocked grounds of 

 this kind be thrown open for lease the spirit of the Haman Oyster 

 Culture Law would be violated, for lessees of such grounds would 

 immediately begin to remove oysters instead of to plant them, and the 

 result would be to decrease instead of to increase the number of oysters 

 in the State. 



A reason sufficient in itself for the action of the Commission in desig- 

 nating such grounds natural bars is to be found in the important fact 

 that undisturbed deep-water communities of oysters constitute great 

 nurseries from which immense numbers of young oysters are annually 

 furnished to the natural bars everywhere in the Bay and its tributaries. 

 It is probably due, in great measure, to such nurseries that many of 

 the bars in Anne Arundel County, so nearly exhausted a few years ago, 

 have been re-stocked with an abundant set of young oysters during the 

 last two years. 



isThe average annual earnings of Connecticut oystermen, as given in 

 the fifth annual report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of Connecticut, 

 is $400.00. Two hundred and fifty dollars is the sum they expect to 

 make from September 1st to December 1st, and one hundred and fifty 

 dollars from March 15th to May 1st. During the remainder of the year 

 they clam, fish and rest. 



iAn. oyster dredger is one who operates wide, heavy dredges from a 

 boat having a tonnage of ten tons or more. He pays a license of $3.00 

 per ton, for his boat, for the privilege of working on the dredging 

 grounds located in State waters. 



Scrapers operate small dredges from boats having a tonnage of ten 

 tons or less. Their licenses, of $2.00 per ton, are issued by the counties 

 in whose waters they work. At present three counties only issue scrape 

 licenses. See page 61. 



