150 THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



custody, and dotain lier until the proper and right name be furnished ; and to that end he shall have power to call upon and rofjuire, as ho 

 may in every other case of necessity, the sheriti' of the county to aid hiui, which sherili' may employ any force or means whatever for that 

 purpose. 



Secs. 9 and 10. No license to plant oysters shall be granted, until the applicant shall furnish tho collector with a statement of the 

 boat or boats to be employed by him iu the business, giving separate name and tonnage, and the name of the owner and the persons who 

 are to work her. 



Sue. 11. The state treasurer shall require from tho collector * * * information, on the first day of June and September, of each 

 year, of the names and residences of all persons having license to plant oysters or dredge for them, and tho names of tho boats used in 

 the business. 



8e€. 12. When the captain of the watch-boat has knowledge of a violation of any of tho provisions of this, or the other acts with 

 which this is connected, he shall proceed immediately to seize the boat or boats employed in .such violation, and hold her or them iu his 

 custody, until the collector has proceeded to enforce the provisions of this and tho other of said acts. 



Sec. 13. Neither the captain of the wateh-boat, nor any of her crew, .shall receive any pay lor time not actually and actively spent 

 in the discharge of the duties required by this act, and the act to which this is a sui)plemeut, but such time shall bo deducted iu the 

 computation of their wages. 



Sec. 14. The captain and crew of the watch-boat shall be practical seamen, and part of their duty shall be to keep the boat, her 

 apparel, tackle, and fiuniture, iu good repair and condition, and this without extra charge ; and no repairs involving extra expense, shall 

 be made without the concurrence of both the collector and captain, and then onlj' such as are authorized by law. 



Sec. 15. The collector shall issue no license, nor permit .iny boat to dredge, until the price or fee for said license has been actually 

 paid, and the collector violating this provision shall not only be responsible for said license fee, but shall, in addition thereto, forfeit a 

 like sum to the state. 



Sec. 16. The collector shall keep a true, accurate list of all licenses issued by him, giving the name of every boat and captain 

 thereof, respectively, with the. amount paid for each license, which list ho shall publish in at least one newspaper in Dover, the first week 

 in April and October each year. 



Sec. 17. The collector shall keep a separate account, in the Farmers' bank at Dover, of all moneys received by him for license issued, 

 and shall deposit weekly all moneys received by him therefor; and all disbursements which he is, or may be, authorized by law to make, 

 shall be by checks drawn on said fund in his oflicial capacity. 



Sec. 18. When the boundary stakes required by the act to which this is a supplement, have once been set, it shall be neither a defense 

 nor excuse for auy person prosecuted for a violation of any of the provisions of this act, or the act to which this is a supplement, that they 

 were not standing or visible at the time the alleged oft'ense was committed ; but if the person accused be proved to have taken oysters 

 anywhere but on his own ground, he may be properly convicted. 



Sec. 19. Eepeals section 6 of chapter 363, laws of 1873. 



Sec. 20. The sum of 15300 is to be set apart annually, from the oyster- fund of Kent county, to the improvement of certain roads along 

 the shore. "And in order to facilitate such improvement, it shall be the duty of all oystermen to land and deposit their oyster-shells on 

 shore, at some convenient place to said road, so that they may be used in said rei)airs, and it shall be uulawfnl to empty or throw such 

 shells into the water, unless the distance from the place shall be so great as to make it unreasonable to laud and deposit them as aforesaid, 

 of which unreasonableness the collector and road-overseer shall concurrently be the judges." 



Sec. 21. The foregoing act to be printed and distributed to owners of boats. 



Under the operation of the.se laws there were regi.stered, iu 1879, 62 boats. The proceed.s of their license-fees 

 amounted to $.5,.324. The statistics for 1880 were not available iu time for this writing, but will uot greatly differ 

 from those of the previous year. Many of the boats take out a dredging-liceuse only, and do not pay the extra $25 

 which entitles them to plant. Oat of the whole 02 boats, only six or eight belong at Little Creek Laiuling, the 

 headquarters of the ntitive oyster-busiuess, and probably there are not more than a dozen sail-boats, employing 50 

 citizens, in all Delaware, owned and engagrd in the shellfisheries, the remainder belonging at Philadelphia aud 

 elsewhere. To a great extent, therefore, this trade is operated out of the same capital, by the same men, and 

 contributes to the same total means of support, as the West Jersey planting. 



Oyster-planting: West shore of Delaware bay. — The western shore of Delaware bay is the great 

 scene of plauting the southern oysters, which are brought annually from the Chesapeake and intended for the 

 Philadelphia maiket ; but, for the present, I will pass by this, and conline myself to an account of the less important 

 business of raising northern oysters from native seed. 



As no work is done during summer, tbe oysterman's year of labor begins on the 1st of September. It is in the 

 fall that he procures nearly all the native seed that he projjoses to plant, and his time is very fally occupied at that 

 season. Though continual dredging is pursued on the home-beds where natural oysters grow, by no means 

 sufficient seed is gathered there to supply the demand along this shore. I was informed that the inshore creek 

 beds along tbe coast of the state furnished last year about 40,000 bushels of seed, which would count 800 to tho 

 bushel. The off-shore beds, in the deeper waters of the bay, but within state limits, yielded about 170 000. In 

 addition to this, there were planted about 100,01)0 bushels of seed that grew on the New Jersey side of the bay, the 

 procuring of wLich, and sale by the Jerseymen, was an evasion of the New Jersey law, and was managed in this way: 

 The New Jersey law prohibits talung any seed from her beds to be planted outside of tbe state. The Jerseymen, 

 therefore, get a cargo of small oysters or half-culled drtdgings, and take it to the general market iu Philadelpliia. 

 If a buyer takes their cargo at a sati.sfactory price, it is regarded as no part of their business to inquire what he 

 proposes to do with it ; nor can there be urged any valid technical objection to this proceeding, since the law does 

 uot define what kind or size or condition of oysters shall be sold ; or that oysters sold iu open market shall uot be 

 repliinted by the buyer, if he chooses, outside the state. So long as he is not a resident of New Jersey, the law 

 can of course exercise no control over his actions iu such a matter. This evasion, and its method, are perfectly well 

 understood by everybody concerned, and if there is a way to put a stop to it — the extreme desirability of \\hich 



I 



