THE OYSTER-INDUSTRY. 167 



The vessels engaged iu carrying oysters from tbe Chesapeake to the iSTorth are generally owned in the cities to 

 which they run ; and it would duplicate statistics to include them iu the oyster-fleet of the Chesapeake. It would, 

 however, be equally an error to make no mention of them at all. From the best information to be obtained by 

 correspondence with the owners of the vessels, I would put their number at 200, with a present aggregate value of 

 $GOO,000. About 1,000 men compose their crews^and the wages of these will amount to about $140,000 a season. 



The oysters taken North for immediate use cost, on an average, about 25 cents a bushel; while plants, during the 

 past season, probably averaged 10 cents a bushel, about -i cents more than the price during the previous season. 



The dismissing of this subject will be excused by the reader, who has access to and has read the previous 

 chapters, which treat of the use of Chesapeake "seed" and oysters iu the waters of the Atlantic states. 



Beginning of oystek-packing in Baltimore. — "Having given-an account of the oystermen, their boats, 

 etc.," says Mr. Edmonds, " it is now appropriate to present some statistics of the nundier of bushels of oysters caught 

 and the disposition made of them. The most impoitaut factor in this connection being the packing-trade, I will 

 endeavor to sliow the extent of this business, as compile<l from the books of the difl'erent firms engaged in it. 



"About 1834 or 1835 a small jiacking-house was opened in Baltimore, but it soon passed out of existence, and 

 no record of it can now be obtained. The first important enterprise iu this line was the establishment of a 

 packinghouse in 183G, by Mr. C. S. Maltby, a native of Connecticut. Mr. Maltby, who, by the way, is still in the 

 business, confined his operations exclusively to the raw trade for a number of years. As his business increased, 

 he established a line of wagons from Baltimore to Pittsburgh, and was thus enal)led to supply the west with fresh 

 oysters long before the Baltimore and Ohio railroad had stretched out its track to that then distant region.* 



Beginning or steamed oysters. — "Mr. A. Field was the first to develop in Baltimore the steau) trade. He 

 began a few years after Mr. Maltby. His oysters were steamed and then hermetically sealed in small tin cans. 



" Having been once established, the trade increased quite rapidly, and for some years oyster-packing, both raw 

 and steamed, was very profitable;! but as there is an abundant chance of financial success through dishonest 

 means, with but little danger of detection, many unscrupulous firms engaged in the steamed-oyster business, and 

 by packing 'light weights', i. e., ijutting in a one-pound can about six or seven ounces of oysters, and filling the 

 remaining space with water, and about the same proportion of oysters and water in larger cans, and either selling 

 them under some fictitious brand, or else entirely omitting any name, they succeeded in gaining for the packing-trade 

 of Baltimore a by no means enviable reputation. To enable them to compete with these 'tricks in trade', reliable 

 houses were in some cases forced to follow their example, as in many places it was found impossible to sell standard 

 goods at fair prices, while 'light weights' could, of course, be sold at much lower figures. In answer to the question 

 as to whether 'light weights' were sold extensively in the west, I was lately informed by a gentleman from that 

 part of the Union, that up to withiu a year or so it had been almost impossible to obtain full weights, but that some 

 improvement had lately taken place in this respect. The same gentleman, on returning to the West, sent me the 

 names of three ]iacking-houses whose names appeared on the cans, and whose oysters were 'light weights'. An 

 examination ])roved the names to be fictitious, there being no such firms iu Baltimore. 



The Union Oyster Company. — "Close competition, by causing a cutting in prices, helped on the trouble, and 

 for several years j)revicus to 1878 the business was very unprofitable. In 1878, to save themselves, the packers 

 formed a combination known as the ' Union Oyster Company', embracing all the leading firms engaged in the 

 steaming business, with the exceiition of three or four, who, having well-known standard brands, preferred to fight 

 it out alone. The formation of the Union Company was, in itself, an evidence that the trade was in a deplorable 

 condition. The company was established with a capital of §300,000, the stock being divided among the twenty-three 

 firms who entered it in proportion to the amount of business ])reviously done by them. The afl'aii's of the company 

 are managed by a president, a vice-president, a secretary, and the twenty-three firms, who constitute the board of 

 directors. In joining the company each firm entirely relinquishes their own steaming business (although they may 

 still conduct the raw trade) and act merely as agents for the union. All oysters are bought and packed by the 

 union, and then sold to the packers at a uniform price, thus placing every firm on exactly the same level. At the 

 same time the union may sell directly to the trade. 



" The result of this combiuatiim has been to i)artially break up fraudulent packing, although it is still carried 

 on to some extent. Outside of the union there are three or four extensive firms, whose oysters sell on the reputation 

 of their brands, and it would obviously be impolitic for them to engage in packing light weights. 



The EAyy-OYSTER packing-houses. — "Theraw-oyster business has always been more profitableand less subject 

 to the vicissitudes of trade, although there are many losses from spoilt oysters when the weather happens to turn 

 suddenly warm. Eaw oysters, after being opened, are packed in small air-tight cans holding about a quart, and 



* Iu 1850, according to menioiauda furni.shcd by C. S. Maltby, there -n-cre six houses eugaged in packiug oysters, to the extent of 

 400,000 to 500,000 cans a year. The ijrice was ^7 a dozen, and live to ten cases to one iiurchaser was considered a large sale. Fruits, etc., 

 were packed to a still larger value by the same houses. 



t Mr. C. S. Maltby records that iu 1865, 1,875,000 bushels of oysters were packed raw in Baltimore, and 1,300,000 bushels were preserved. 

 In I8G9 he numbers in ilaryland 55 packers who, at 500 to 2,500 cans per day, put up twelve to fifteen millions of cans in a season of seven 

 mouths, using 5,000,000 bushels. Sixty "raw" houses that year employed 3,000 hands, while the packers gave employment to 7,500 persons. 

 Large quantities of canned oysters were annually sent, at that time, by steamship to Havana. In 1872 the same notes record as opening 

 oysters, 2,000 men; making cans, 300 men ; box-makers, 50 men ; clerks and laborers, 300. AJl these were in the "raw" trade of Baltimore, 



