Rowe. — Decline of Oyster Industry 37 



The oyster growers were unjustly deprived of the police 

 which they paid for by special tax, and were compelled to go to 

 each legislature and refute misrepresentations intended to procure 

 additional legislation against them. They were persecuted by 

 short-sighted politicians, so that a large number of those formerly 

 engaged in the business have abandoned it entirely, others have 

 sold out their interests and many of the leading firms have removed 

 their business partly or wholly from the state, and their capital 

 is being transferred to other lines of investment. 



Farmers on land are encouraged and assisted by federal 

 and state appropriations of many millions of dollars annually. 

 Swimming fish are propagated for the benefit of the fisherman 

 and the angler, at great expense, by both state and federal govern- 

 ments. Is it then public policy to make impossible the work of 

 the oyster farmer, who at great labor and expense produces his 

 own crops without assistance, and pays a large revenue besides? 



The writer believes that public policy requires that steps 

 should be taken to revive the oyster industry in these states 

 before it becomes practically extinct, and that the influence of 

 the members of this Society will be exerted in this direction. 

 The oyster farmers no longer expect or ask for prosperity, but 

 public policy requires that this industry should at least be allowed 

 to continue to exist and to produce food, of which the nation and 

 the world are so much in need. 



