Parsons. — Fisheries of the Chesapeake 17 



Chesapeake, rich with food for an unlimited oyster 

 growth, free from the most destructive of oyster ene- 

 mies, with its safe and unvarying natural conditions, will 

 prove to be of greater value to the people on its shore 

 than mountains full of silver and gold." 



The late Professor Brooks of Johns Hopkins Uni- 

 versity, in writing of the Chesapeake Bay, said: "The 

 opportunity for rearing oysters there is unparalleled in 

 any other part of the world." He, however, severely criti- 

 cized the short-sighted policy under which both Maryland 

 and Virginia were at that time (1890) permitting this in- 

 dustry to be handled. He said: "The total harvest of 

 oysters from the Chesapeake Bay since the establishment 

 of packing houses is fully four hundred million bushels. 



"This inconceivably vast amount of delicate and nutri- 

 tious food has been yielded by our waters without any 

 aid from man. It is a harvest that no man has sown ; a 

 gift from bounteous nature. 



"The fact that our waters have withstood this enor- 

 mous draft upon them, and have continued to meet our 

 ever increasing demands, is most conclusive evidence of 

 their fertility and value; and the citizens of Maryland 

 and Virginia might well point with pride to the bound- 

 less resources of our magnificent bay were it not for two 

 things. 



"The first of these is the fact, which for many years 

 we strove to hide even from ourselves, that our indiffer- 

 ence and lack of foresight and our blind trust in our 

 natural advantages, have brought this great inheritance 

 to the verge of ruin. Unfortunately, this is now so clear 

 that it can no longer be hidden from sight nor explained 

 away, and everyone knows that, proud as our citizens 

 once were of our birthright in our oyster beds, we will 

 be unable to give to our children any remnant of our 

 patrimony unless the whole oyster industry is reformed 

 without delay. 



"We have wasted our inheritance by improvidence and 

 mismanagement and blind confidence; but even if our 

 beds had held their own and were today as valuable as 



