OYSTER CULTURE IN AMERICA. 725 



the beds into open and closed districts, may all result in 

 temporary improvement, and in the body of this report we 

 have discussed various measures of this sort, and have 

 recommended many changes in the existing laws, . . . 

 . . . . We have given careful attention to the possi- 

 bility of artificially increasing the supply (of oysters). . . 

 . . The greater part of this report is made up of informa- 

 tion upon this subject from various sources, and we believe 

 that careful examination of it will convince all of the truth 

 'of the conclusion which we ourselves have reached that 

 the oyster bottoms of our State are of greater value than 

 the dry land, and that they will some day support a great 

 and prosperous population. 



Their value in the past has been inconsiderable as 

 compared with their possible value in the future, for while 

 the oyster fishermen have never earned much more than 

 two million dollars a year, it is no exaggeration to state 

 that our grounds are capable of yielding hundreds of mil- 

 lions of dollars annually. 



In another part of our report we have 

 shown that, if all the grounds suitable for planting in our 

 waters could be made as profitable per acre as the oyster 

 grounds of the State of Rhode Island now are, they would 

 return annually to their cultivators the sum of six hundred 

 million dollars, and our beds are in reality far more valu- 

 able than those of Rhode Island, as our waters are free 

 from the destructive enemies which there often destroy a 

 large bed in a few days, and our milder climate protects 

 our oysters from destruction by ice and frost. 



Oyster farming (which is the rearing of 

 oysters from the egg, and therefore true farming), the most 

 important source of the oyster supply, is practically unknown 

 in Maryland. 



