THE OYSTER. 211 



and protecting them without expense to the people of 

 the State can be put into practice, that is all we should 

 expect. 



We often hear that, as their value in the past has 

 not been the result of human industry, the oyster- 

 bottoms are a natural source of wealth which 

 belongs to the people of the whole State. This is 

 unquestionably true, but it may be well to inquire 

 more minutely into the exact nature and significance 

 of this ownership, for common rights bring with them 

 common duties and obligations. 



Our first duty is to protect those citizens who are 

 most immediately and directly dependent on the oys- 

 ter, and, among them, those who fish the public beds 

 to get oysters to serve as food for themselves and their 

 families have the first claim. 



Of the 10,500,000 bushels of oysters which were 

 gathered in 1880 in our waters, 8,670,000, or more than 

 four-fifths of the whole, were consumed outside the 

 State, and those who hold that the people of our tide- 

 water counties, or the people of Maryland, have a 

 natural right to this supply of food, may truthfully 

 affirm that if the sale of four-fifths of our oysters to 

 people outside our State were prohibited, there would, 

 even now, be an abundance for our own people on our 

 natural beds. Under any intelligent system of manage- 

 ment our natural beds would supply all the oysters we 

 need for food, and would still leave a great surplus for 

 commercial purposes, and we do not need to kill the 

 oyster business in order to get our own supply. 



It must therefore be clear to every one that our 

 natural right to oysters for food does not justify us in 



