Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners 71 



LOTHOLDERS PRIOR TO THE PASSAGE OF THE 

 HAMAN OYSTER CULTURE BILL. 



Prior to the passage of the Hainan Oyster Culture Bill, a 

 number of oyster lots were located and appropriated by citizens 

 of the State of Maryland, under what was commonly known as 

 "The Five Acre Law," which in substance, required that such 

 location and appropriation should be "described by stakes and 

 bushes and that the name of the owner be placed on a board 

 fastened to a pole or stake on or within the appropriated oyster 

 land, or by the proper and visible metes and bounds, which 

 description should be reduced to writing under the oath of some 

 competent surveyor and recorded at the expense of the party 

 locating or appropriating the same, in the Office of the Clerk of 

 the Circuit Court for the county wherein such land may be 

 located." ( Section 46 of Article 72 of the Code of Public Gen- 

 eral Laws of Maryland.) 



The Section of the Code above mentioned further provided 

 that "No natural bar or bed of oysters should be so located or 

 appropriated and that twelve months' peaceable possession of all 

 locations of oyster grounds under the laws of this State shall 

 constitute a good and sufficient title thereto." It also reserved 

 to the riparian owners a priority of right to locate and appro- 

 priate in the waters adjoining the lands of such riparian 

 owners, and required a notice of thirty days, in writing, to 

 such riparian owner, from any other person desiring to locate 

 or appropriate. While in some of the tidewater counties local 

 statutes to some extent modified the general law of location 

 and appropriation of oyster lots, as above outlined, it will be 

 seen from an examination of this local legislation that the 

 fundamental safeguards with reference to the number of acres 

 that might be appropriated by any one lotholder; notice to 

 riparian owners; the appropriation of natural oyster bed or 

 bars, and the recorded description of the lot so appropriated, 

 were practically maintained throughout the State at the time 

 of the passage of the Haman Oyster Culture Bill. 



