WOOD-USING INDUSTRIES OF MARYLAND 25 



Loblolly pine was second in quantity used and also second in total 

 cost of Maryland basket woods. Twenty-nine per cent was cut in 

 Maryland, and the importations came chiefly from Virginia. The 

 900,000 feet of tupelo reported was used principally for heavy baskets, 

 and the smaller quantity of yellow poplar was employed in a similar 

 way. The price of the yellow poplar indicates that it was not gen- 

 erally of a class suitable for the lumber market, and was probably cut 

 from young trees. Maryland supplied 61 per cent of all the yellow 

 poplar. Basket makers used 62 per cent of all the sycamore reported 

 for Maryland, and of this amount, the State supplied three-fourths, 

 at $10.66 per thousand, while the average price for sycamore in the 

 United States in 1908 was $14.65. 



SHIPS AND BOATS. 



The building of ships and boats is an important industry in Mary- 

 land. The Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries afford a system of 

 natural highways unsurpassed in the United States. The State con- 

 tains an area of 2,350 miles of water, much of it navigable for the 

 largest types of vessels, and nearly all for small craft. The number 

 of pleasure boats upon this system of waterways is very large, but the 

 fleets that are engaged in business are much larger. The fisheries of 

 Maryland exceed in value those of every other Middle Atlantic State, 

 and there are 40,000 fishermen in the State, besides many from Vir- 

 ginia, who are engaged in business upon Chesapeake Bay, which is the 

 largest natural oyster-producing water in the world. Though its 

 actual beds cover only 200 square miles, their yield of oysters annually 

 is worth $3,000,000, or more than $23 an acre. Few wheat fields 

 surpass that return in yearly crops. The annual catch of fish is worth 

 $600,000. The shores of the bays and inlets of Chesapeake Bay are 

 literally studded with communities dependent to a greater or less 

 extent upon the fisheries. The oyster fleet of Maryland is a sort of 

 naval police force that keeps a perpetual lookout for infringements of 

 laws relating to State oyster fisheries. 



Two and a quarter per cent of all the woods manufactured in Mary- 

 land in 1909 was bought by boat makers at an average price of $34.69 

 per thousand. The State supplied 26 per cent of it at an average 

 cost of $31.02 per thousand, and 74 per cent was bought elsewhere 

 at an average cost of $35.97. Eleven of the twenty-four woods on the 



