170 



THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 



statistics regarding the number of ship carpenters occupied in building and repairing oyster-vessels, but from an 

 extensive correspondence with ship-builders in various parts of the state, 1 think it will be placing the estimate 

 too low rather than too high, to say that there are 300 workmen, including carpenters and sail-makers, with yearly 

 wages amounting to $156,000. As can-makers, ship-yard workmen, etc., we then have 700 men, with about 3,.500 

 people dependent upon them, receiving $25(3,000 in wages. 



The retail teade of Bax,timoee and othee cities. — " It was found impossible to obtain the number of 

 people engaged in the retail trade of Baltimore and other cities, as any statistics gathered from restaurants and 

 hotels would be delusive, since they are not engaged exclusively in handling oysters. Under the circumstances the 

 best estimates that can be made may be deduced from calculations based upon the local consumption in the cities. 

 In Baltimore the city trade is monopolized by a number of commission houses, which handle all the oysters taken 

 for local use, with the exception of the receipts by steamers. From the books of these iirms it was ascertained that 

 the sales of oysters from September 1, 1879, to May 1, 1880, for consumption in the city and suburbs, amounted to 

 793,080 bushels. Add to this 25,000 bushels received by steamers, and the total retail trade is found to be 818,080 

 bushels. The average price paid for shucking raw oysters is 15 cents a gallon ; these being all of fine quality, will 

 open a gallon to a bushel, and hence the amount paid for opening 818,080 bushels would be 8122,802. Estimating 

 the average amount made by the shuckers at $G a week, or $192 for the season, it is seen that there are CIO men 

 steadily employed for nearly eight months of the year in opening oysters for local consumption in Baltimore. There 

 is, in addition to these, a large number of men who sell oysters around the streets; others who rent a cellar room 

 and sell from there; some engage in driving oyster-carts; and a few are employed only during the oyster-season in 

 restaurants as extra help. As near as can be discovered, the number of these may be placed at 500, with wages 

 and earnings amounting to $90,000. Of these 1,110 men about 800 ?.re negroes. 



Consumption in Baltimoee of oystees feom other states. — " In addition to its own stock, Baltimore 

 annually uses a large quantity of 'fancy' oysters from northern cities. The Philadelphia, Wilmington and 

 Baltimore railway, in 1879, carried to that city 273,120 pounds of oysters in the shell, representing about 30,300 

 bushels. In addition to this, a firm of Baltimore men has lately opened a large establishment near Cape May, 

 New Jersey, whence last fall they shipped about 20 half-barrels of opened oysters daily, during September and 

 October. A similar importation from planting-beds near Providence, Ehode Island, has been heretofore described. 



Local consumption of towns on Chesapeake bat. — "The local consumption of towns on the bay is 

 about 200,000 bushels a season, the shucking of which pays $30,000 to 150 men. Estimating an average of five to 

 a family, these 1,290 men who are engaged in shucking and selling oysters for local consumption throughout the 

 state, represent an aggregate of 6,450 individuals. Knowing the consumption per capita of Baltimore and suburbs, 

 and calculating that the inhabitants of the tidewater counties consume proportionately at least twice as many, it is 

 easy to obtain an approximate idea of the total number of oysters annually consumed in the state, and not found 

 in the returns from the packers. Of course the interior counties are not considered here, as they receive oysters 

 from the packers which have already been noted. The estimate that the tidewater counties consume locally twice 

 as many as Baltimore in proportion to the number of inhabitants, is based upon careful inquiry among well-informed 

 persons. On this estimate, taking the population as returned by the present census, there are about 875,000 

 bushels annually consumed in the counties bordering on the bay, in addition to the 200,000 bushels consuined in 

 the towns on the bay. These oysters are generally opened by the families who eat them, and hence there is no 

 expense for shucking. 



Oystee-cubeency. — " In some of the lower counties of the state, oysters often pass current as money, and 

 in one town there is a weekly paper (subscription price $1), about 50 of the subscribers to whjch annually pay in 

 oysters. As the editor thus receives from 100 to 125 bushels of oysters a season, all of which are used in his own 

 family, I readily believe his assertion that he ' was very fond of oysters.'" 



47. STATISTICAL SUMMAEY FOE BALTIMOEE. 



Eecapitulation of NUiviBEE OF MEN EMPLOYED IN OTSTEE-INDUSTEY. — Summing up the total of all 

 engaged in the oyster-trade, we have : 



. Occupation. 



Dredgers 



Tonj;orH 



Scrapers 



" Kunners " 



Employ6s of packing houses 



Can-makers and ship-yard workmen 

 Treparinj^ for local consumption 



Individual packers 



Total 



Numher en- 

 gaged. 



5,600 

 5,148 

 2,200 



800 

 8,639 



700 

 1,290 



24, 377 

 225 



Wages and cam- 

 inga of same. 



$916, 300 



1, 158, 240 



297, 000 



166, 400 



777, 779 

 256, 000 

 248, 802 



3, 820, 521 



Estimated num- 

 ber of jiersoiis 

 supported. 



278 

 .WO 

 450 



, '-"JO 

 ,125 



