734 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



therefore advocate the prohibition or restriction of dredg- 

 ing. Ignorant of the fact that in localities where no 

 dredging has been allowed the natural beds have been 

 exhausted by tongmen, just as soon as a demand for the 

 oysters sprung up, they believe that the prohibition of 

 dredging is all that is needed to restore the beds. The 

 dredgers, on the other hand, attribute the injury to the 

 law which allows the tongmen to take oysters for private 

 use in the summer, forgetting that the beds of Connecticut 

 are rapidly increasing in value under a law which allows 

 not only tonging, but dredging as well, all through the 

 year. The small dredgers and scrapers hold that the 

 larger vessels are destroying the oysters by the use of 

 heavy dredges, although the Connecticut farmers find it to 

 their interest to use on their own private beds far heavier 

 dredges, which they drag over the beds by steam. 



Many of the oyster packers, who carry on their busi- 

 ness only in the winter, believe that all the damage is due 

 to the oystermen who fish in March, April, and May ; and 

 men who have money invested in the oyster business in 

 Maryland believe that the exportation of oysters in the 

 shell, and especially oysters for planting in Northern 

 waters, is the cause of the mischief. 



. . . . We can hardly be surprised that our people 

 should exhibit total ignorance of the true cause of the 

 destruction, when we recollect that there is not a single 

 word in any of the laws of Maryland which indicates that 

 our legislators are aware that the supply of oysters can be 

 artificially increased, or that there is need for any such 

 increase. 



. . . . Lieut. Francis Winslow . . . recently 

 published the following expression of an opinion, which is 



