PREFACE. 



The first edition of this book was written in 1890 at 

 the suggestion of President Oilman and other citizens 

 of Baltimore, and it was published by the Johns Hop- 

 kins University in 1891, in the hope that it might help 

 to bring about a practical and judicious system of 

 oyster farming in Maryland, and the development and 

 improvement of the natural resources of our waters, by 

 an account of the way in which the structure and habits 

 of the oyster fit it for cultivation as a submarine agri- 

 cultural product. 



To-day, fifteen years after the book was written, the 

 oyster grounds of Virginia and North Carolina, and 

 those of Georgia and Louisiana, are increasing in value, 

 and many of our packing houses are being moved to the 

 south, but there is no oyster farming in Maryland, and 

 our oyster beds are still in a state of nature, affording a 

 scanty and precarious livelihood to those who depend 

 upon them. 



Since the facts and reflections which the first edition 

 contained are as instructive now as they were fifteen 

 years ago, no essential change in the book seems to be 



