THE OYSTER-INDUSTRY. 



163 



Vessels engaged in tonging.— " Tonging, although generally confined to shallow water, is in some of the 

 tributaries of the bay carried on in water varying in depth from 18 to 20 feet. 



"Engaged in tonging there are 5,148 men, using 1,825 canoes or other small boats. To obtain even an 

 approximate average of the amount of money made by each tonger is almost impossible, but I think it will be very 

 near correct to estimate it at $225 a season, at which rate the total amount made by the tongers would be $l,158,.300. 

 There being 1,825 boats and 5,148 men, the average number of men carried by each boat is a little less than three. 

 Many of the la?ger boats are held in joint ownership by two or three parties. 



Statistics of tonging-licenses, 1S70-'80. — "A statement is available and furnished herewith of the number 

 of tongiug-liceuses issued during the past ten years, and the number of men employed on the boats in the season 

 of 1879-'80. 



* No records farther back than 1874. t No license required until 1874-'75. 



"The information contained in the abore table was kindly furnished to me by the gentlemen named, who are 

 the clerks of the circuit courts of the respective counties, and from whom all licenses to tong must be obtained. 



Laws for the regulation of tonging. — "The law in relation thereto is, ' that any resident of this state 

 desiring to use any canoe or other boat in catching or taking oysters for sale, with rakes or tongs, in any of the 

 waters of this state, shall first obtain, by application to the clerk of the circuit court for the county wherein he may 

 reside, a license therefor, and such license shall have effect from the-first day of June in the year in which it may 

 haye been obtained, to the first day of June next succeeding; provided that such license shall not authorize the use 

 of said canoe or boat in taking or catching oysters in any creek, cove, river, inlet, bay, or sound within the limits 

 of any county other than that wherein the license shall have been granted, and that the boundaries of counties 

 bordering on navigable waters shall be strictly construed, so as not to permit the residents of either couuty to take 

 or catch oysters beyond the middle of the dividing channel; * * * and every applicant for such license shall 

 pay to the clerk of the court where such license may be granted, and before the issuing and delivery of the same, 

 according to the following rates, viz: for any boat measuring in lenglh 20 feet or less, the sum of $2; measuring 

 from 20 to 25 feet, the sum of $3; measuring from 25 to 30 feet, the sum of $4; and all over 30 feet, including sloops 

 under custom-house tonnage, the sum of 85 each ; and all oysters taken with rakes or tongs shall be culled upon the 

 natural beds where they are taken ; the amount received from tonging license to be paid by the clerk to the school 

 conimissioners for the public schools of the respective counties where such license is issued ; provided the sum received 

 from while tongers shall go to white schools, and the sum from colored tongers to colored schools.' 



Licenses and tdeir value to the state. — " The money arising from licenses issued to toug and to scrape 

 during the year 1879, amounted to .$S,t)50 SO, which was turned over to the boards of school commissioners of the 

 various counties, with the exception of $210 received by Worcester county for licenses, and which was used by the 

 county commissioners in purchasing 'plants' to be b<'dded in the couuty waters. It may be well to explain, that 

 the laws in Worcester county are dillerent from those in the other counties, in respect to the disposal of license- 

 money, and also as regards the issuing of license. In this county the license is $1 on each man in the trade, and 

 no account is taken of the boat. 



" Since 1874-'75, the number of licenses granted has decreased from 2,814 to 1,825 in 1879-'80. There are 

 several causes for this, the principal one probably being the unprofitableness of tonging, for several seasons past, 

 as comi)ared with former years. From 18G5 or 180(5 to 1874 or 1875, tonging was quite profitable, as oysters com- 

 manded a good price, but since the latter year prices have ruled very low, and many have turned their attention to 

 other occuiJatious. It may be that some few tongers are working without license, but from the testimony of those 



