146 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



association. The cliicf outlay and main object of the association and fund, is the providing of a watch boat and 

 ]iolicc crew, which shall watch the beds in the cove against thieves and arrest all boats that do not show, by a 

 number in the middle of the mainsail, that they have a license. Last year (1S79) from 227 boats licensed, about 

 $2,000 was collected by Mr. Benjamin Campbell, the collector at Port iSTorris. This year (1880) the fee is 50 cents 

 per ton, custom-house measurement, and the total fees will amount to more than before, since 255 boats are akeady 

 licensed. 



The license given by the association reads as follows : 



S2)eeial license, No. . 



By authority of the state of New Jersey : 



of county, state of New Jersey, having paid the sum of dollars, license is hereby granted to the 



said to catch, plant, and grow oysters in Delaware bay and Maurice river cove, in the state of New Jersey, one year from 



date, iu conformity with the provisions of an act of the legislature of New Jersey, entitled "An act for the better enforcement in Maurice 

 river cove and Delaware bay of the act entitled ' An act for the preservation of clams and oysters', approved April fourteenth, eighteen 

 hundred and forty-six, and the supplements thereto", which act was approved March tweuty-iirst, eighteen hundred and seventy-one. 



This license is to be used by the said as caiitaiu or commander of the called the , of , state of New Jersey, 



of tons burden, and numbered iu the middle of the mainsail. 



Given under my hand and seal of office, at this day of eighteen hundred and eighty . 



. [L. s.] 



Annexed to the counterpart of this license, which is filed in the office of the collector, is a printed oath, by 

 which the captain swears that he will obey and help enforce the laws of the state for the protection of the oyster- 

 fisheries, upon all occasions. 



The obligations of living up to these regulations are avoided by many irresponsible boat-owners, who, rather 

 than pay the assessment and enter the association, prefer to take their chances of arrest, and forfeit whatever 

 advantages the association may have to offer. The watch-boat is therefore kept busy looking after homo 

 delinquents, rather than thieves from al)road. The captain of this watch-boat receives $130 a month pay, and 

 liro\ides his own crew out of it. lie carries three to five men, but in case of any emergency calls upon anybody 

 at hand to render help, and he is bound to obey. 



In the case of the oyster-boats controlled wholly at home, it is a general rule that the men go on shares. The 

 vessel takes one-third of all receipts and the crew divide the rest, paying the captain's "grub bill" in addition. 

 If each man makes $500 a year by this arrangement, he does very well. The crews are made up of residents of the 

 state, at least of residents of six months' standing. When a crew is hired, the wages are from $20 to $40 a month 

 and board. 



As usual, where the oyster-business has become of great dimensions and planting is carried on on a large scale, 

 there are a number of persons who are, to a greater or less extent, deprived of real or imaginary benefits and 

 privileges which they enjoyed under a more primitive condition of things. From the inclosed river and ponds, 

 and also from the outside waters of the bay southward of Egg island, large numbers of large-sized and sweet 

 oysters have always been taken and sent to market or peddled, through the neighborhood. When planting-beds 

 wei'e so greatly increased in Maurice river cove, the shore people found that the diligent search for young oysters 

 through the marshes, and the persistent dredging daring three-fom-ths of the year, were .sensibly diminishing the 

 supply of marketable oysters attainable by the small open boats. Of these there are fifty or more owned along 

 shore. They are too small to come under the association's tax ; do not belong to planters, but are owned by men 

 who live near the shore, and gain a large part of their livelihood by tonging and hand-dredging. These people, 

 owing to misfortune or improvidence, are too poor to plant ; but can do well if they are allowed to catch all the 

 year round in the southern part of the bay, where all the oysters taken are of marketable size. For the protection 

 of this class, therefore, against any possible rapacity of more fortunate and powerful neighbors, the legislature this 

 year passed a law which gives general satisfaction. This makes it unlawful " to catch oysters from anj^ of the 

 natural beds in Delaware bay, north of a line bearing southwest from the mouth of Sow and Pigs creek, in the 

 county of Cumberland, from the last day of June in each year to the first day of April in the succeeding year, and 

 no oysters shall be caught south of said line for the purpose of planting at any season of the year; and any person 

 offending against either of the provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor". Punishments 

 are a fine of $100, or imprisonment, with forfeiture of the craft and all its furniture. 



Oysters and oystering at Maurice cove. — A large part of the oysters sold from Maurice cove are of 

 natural growth and do not become improved by transplanting. Many of them do not even require to be freshened 

 on the "board-banks" before being taken to market. This is the case with those obtained oft' Egg island. These 

 excellent wild oysters are dredged from all dei)ths, six to eight fathoms of line being the ordinary amount used, 

 however. Successful dredging has been done, however, in all i)arts of the southern half of Delaware bay, even in 

 mid-cliannel, where the water is more than 500 feet deep. This deep dredging is unprofitable, however, and not 

 practiced; but that oysters exist there has been shown by experiment, as I was positively assured by Daniel T. 

 Howell, esq., of Mauricetowu, who gave me many interesting notes upon this region. 



While the dredging for natural oysters can only be done by the large boats jjroperly fitted with improvcU 

 windlasses and deep-water apparatus, large quantities of seed are furnished the planters from the creeks and 



d 



