Rowc. — Taxation of Oyster Properties 297 



There are some minor considerations which have been 

 urged with reference to the preceding questions, but when 

 adequately answered the result remains the same, hence I 

 will not in this paper take them up in detail. 



There remains another question which has been raised 

 occasionally during the past thirty years, but which has al- 

 ways been answered in the same way. In Connecticut 

 there has recently been a very extensive discussion and con- 

 test over this question; whether oysters propagated, planted 

 and grown upon the private cultivated grounds should be 

 taxed. On public beds, where the state owns the grounds 

 and the oysters grow naturally without artificial propaga- 

 tion and cultivation, it would seem to be optional with the 

 legislature whether the state should derive a large or small 

 income from the natural product of these grounds. This is 

 done in some instances by charging a license fee to those 

 who derive the benefit of catching the oysters and shellfish 

 upon these grounds. The rights of all citizens of the state 

 are equal in these shellfish, but it is obvious that it would 

 not be practicable for all the citizens of the state to share in 

 the products of these grounds, when special equipment is 

 necessary in order to take the oysters, in some cases cost- 

 ing from $500 to $2,000 to each vessel used for the purpose. 



In order then that all the citizens of the state should par- 

 take equally in the benefit of these grounds, it has been 

 shown by those officials who have made this subject a study 

 that either these grounds should be sold or leased to indi- 

 viduals, or else that those who have the exclusive privilege 

 of working upon these grounds, by reason of equipment, etc., 

 should pay for suitable licenses to produce a reasonable rev- 

 enue to the state for the privilege which they enjoy. 



The question as concerns oysters artificially propagated 

 and grown upon the private oyster grounds, which are owned 

 by individuals practically in the same way that real estate is 

 owned on land, is an entirely different question, and is anala- 

 gous to the crops of corn, wheat or cotton, or other 

 crops which are grown upon the land. It is not considered 



