Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners. 103 



torn, they can be rapidly and economically gathered with such an 

 equipment. The law in its present form has been construed to with- 

 hold from oyster planters the right to secure a supply of small 

 oysters from overstocked natural oyster bars for planting purposes, 

 thus forcing lessees of oyster lots to plant oysters already grown to 

 marketable size, for which the price of marketable stock must be 

 paid. The amendments recommended by the Commission not only 

 enable lessees of oyster lots to secure small seed oysters, but also to 

 secure them at the time of year when physical conditions in the 

 Chesapeake bay and its tributaries are such that oysters may be 

 transplanted from one locality to another with the least possible risk 

 of injury to the oysters. The argument in favor of the plan to 

 change the time of transplanting oysters in Maryland from Spring 

 to Fall is discussed and explained in another part of this report, 

 but, in further support of the plan, it may be stated that the "set" 

 which attaches to the natural oyster beds in Connecticut is annually 

 transplanted to the planted grounds in the Fall, and, in Virginia, 

 the small oysters produced on the seed beds in the upper part of the 

 James river are transplanted to the bay in the Fall also. 



Any change in the law which contemplates the granting of one of 

 these privileges and withholding the others, will be futile so far as 

 the establishment of oyster culture is concerned. Planters can 

 make no use of greater areas in the absence of the privilege of 

 using dredges on such areas for cultivating and gathering the oysters 

 planted upon them, and it would be just as futile to provide for 

 rapid and improved means of cultivation without at the same time 

 providing for areas sufficiently large to warrant the expense of em- 

 ploying such means. Without large areas and the right to employ 

 up-to-date and economical means of cultivating them, there can be 

 no great demand for seed oysters, and, on the other hand, in the 

 absence of the possibility of obtaining a supply of small oysters for 

 planting purposes, there can be no very great demand for large 

 oyster farms and no inducement for planters to provide themselves 

 with the expensive equipment required for large oyster planting 

 operations. 



The Shell Fish Commission has been subjected to criticism be- 

 cause of its firm stand against any compromise by which it might 

 have been possible to have secured one of the above mentioned 

 changes in the law by abandoning its fight for the other two. The 



