2l8 THE OYSTER. 



is rapidly leading to their complete destruction, is 

 thus seen to be less than three per cent of their pos- 

 sible value. 



An abstract statement in figures is always open to 

 distrust, and in order to guard against any impression 

 that the value stated above for our oyster-grounds is 

 imaginary, we wish to call attention here to results 

 which have actually been realized. 



In 1888, Mr. Fred. A. Gunby, formerly a resident 

 of Crisfield, Maryland, obtained from the State of Vir- 

 ginia a right to cultivate oysters on about sixty-eight 

 acres of bottom in Accomac County, Virginia. The 

 tract lay in Tangier Sound, near the Maryland line, 

 and opposite that part of Smith's Island which is in 

 Virginia, lying just south of Horse Hammock. He 

 planted that year 28,000 bushels of oyster shells, at a 

 cost of about ^1200. Since that time he has been to 

 expense in employing a watchman to keep off in- 

 truders, and this total outlay up to December, 1890, 

 had been about ;^3000. In April, 1890, it was esti- 

 mated that there were 30,000 bushels of oysters on his 

 beds. The shells were found full of young oysters, 

 which were growing rapidly. In December, 1890, it 

 was calculated that there were 350,000 bushels of oys- 

 ters on the ground, worth at least thirty or forty cents 

 a bushel in the market. 



He was not permitted to gather the harvest which 

 he had sown, but his experience shows the rich return 

 which would be yielded by this sort of oyster-farming 

 if private rights could be respected ; and it rests with 

 the people of Maryland to decide whether our re- 

 sources shall be developed, and until we determine to 



