216 Our Food Mollusks 



made at the same time, a much greater stride in advance 

 would have been taken. 



Maryland was still the proud leader of all the oyster 

 producing states in 1891. Ten years later she had re- 

 linquished this position to Virginia, from which were 

 marketed nearly eight million bushels in 1901. Of these 

 more than three million bushels came from private beds. 

 The Virginia oyster planter still has his serious troubles, 

 but the practice of planting has become so extensive 

 that the market does not depend entirely on the natural 

 rocks, and hence possesses much stability. 



Of late years it has everywhere become the habit to 

 refer to the upper Chesapeake as the dead goose that 

 laid the golden eggs. When modern oyster laws are be- 

 ing demanded in other states, Maryland is exhibited as 

 the horrible example of the effects of faulty legislation 

 on the oyster industry. Her natural resources have 

 largely been wasted, and almost perfect lawlessness has 

 been tolerated on the bay. 



No one has ever supposed that the people of Mary- 

 land were peculiarly indifferent to the destruction of the 

 natural treasures buried in her bay. They have known 

 what they were losing, and why, but, like the American 

 public everywhere, they were long-suffering in patience. 

 An American from any other part of the country knows 

 without being told that such a state of affairs is probably 

 to be explained by what was the fact in this case — that 

 the Maryland oyster had been deeply involved in politics. 



When a sufficient number of persons become interested 

 in the lumbering of pine, spruce, or fir, these become fac- 

 tors in state or even national politics. The same is true 

 of such sources of natural wealth as metals, coal, petro- 

 leum, and many others. This happens because those 



