The Chesapeake 209 



in supplying" lime for building" and for the construction of 

 beautiful shell roads, but, in some cases, to build the very 

 foundations of towns from the bottom of the bay. 



It is true that Maryland, in 1882, appointed a com- 

 mission to inquire into the condition of the industry in 

 her waters — providing it with no means for making a 

 survey, and paying no attention whatever to the valuable 

 report returned by it. Since that period the main facts 

 concerning the industry have been recorded. 



During the first quarter of the last century there seems 

 to have been a brisk local trade in the opening and sale 

 of oysters in cities and towns near the bay. But in this 

 early time began the shipping of oysters to the northern 

 field for planting and for opening. It has already been 

 stated that this trade increased in magnitude until 

 checked by the Civil War. Out of it grew the present 

 packing business of the Chesapeake, and in the follow- 

 ing manner : — A few far-seeing and energetic oyster 

 culturists of Connecticut, recognizing the great natural 

 resources of the bay, and the possibilities of a market 

 with Baltimore as a center, established branch packing 

 houses in that city in 1834. These pioneers of the mod- 

 ern business, with characteristic energy, began to estab- 

 lish wagon lines for the distribution of their product, 

 extending them as far west as Pittsburgh. With the 

 construction of the Baltimore and Ohio, and other rail- 

 roads, this distribution was enormously facilitated, 

 oysters were plentiful, and these firms conducted a great 

 business. 



Writing of the establishment of the first packing 

 houses. Mr. Ingersoll, who had collected all available 

 data for his census report of 1880, continues : — " A few 

 years later, Mr. A. Field, also a native of Connecticut, 



