Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners. 29 



An approximately correct estimate of the total number of bushels 

 of oysters taken from the public oyster grounds during any oyster 

 season may be secured by multiplying the total number of licenses 

 issued that season to tongmen, scrapers and dredgers, by 450, 1,500 

 and 3,500 respectively, these numbers representing the quantity of 

 oysters a tongman, scraper or dredger must catch during an oyster 

 season in order to have secured a livelihood. 



It often happens during seasons when oysters are scarce or are 

 poor in quantity or when the price of oysters is abnormally low, 

 that oystermen do not continue to work throughout the entire 

 season and for such seasons the estimated total yield of the oyster 

 grounds, made on the proposed basis, would likely be very con- 

 siderably greater than the actual yield. 



BALTIMORE COUNTY. 



CHESAPEAKE BAY. 



(Maryland Oyster Chart No. 28.) 



The waters lying within the territorial limits of Baltimore 

 County are too fresh to support the growth of oysters, but the sec- 

 tion of the Chesapeake bay contiguous to Baltimore County and 

 hence, under provision of the law, to be opened for lease for oyster 

 culture with Baltimore County, contains a considerable portion of 

 those bottoms, very prolific in small oysters, collectively known as 

 "The Lumps." 



The section may be roughly described as that portion of the bay 

 situated west of a line marking the mid-bay channel between the 

 mouths of the Gunpowder and Patapsco rivers. Its boundary lines, 

 established by the Maryland Shell Fish Commission for the purposes 

 of carrying out the provisions of the law, are delineated on Maryland 

 Oyster Chart No. 28, and are technically described and defined in 

 the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey report entitled "Survey of 

 Oyster Bars — Baltimore County." 



The oyster bars of the section are designated for the use of dredg- 

 ers, and their output, frequently of very considerable quantity, is 

 eagerly taken by the packers of Baltimore. 



Formerly the bottoms in this section on which oysters "set" and 

 grew, were much greater in area and had a much more general dis- 



