MARYLAND: OYSTER INDUSTRY. 433 



who would pay the military officials for a permit to oyster; the consequence was that the oyster 

 beds were scraped bare, and it was two years before they could recuperate." 



While dredging, properly conducted, is no doubt beneficial to the beds, I am inclined to 

 think that in this State it is being carried too far, and that its ultimate effect will be the same as 

 in every European country where it has been unrestricted by proper laws. By some it is believed 

 that the oyster beds of the Chesapeake Bay are of such vast extent, and the number of young 

 annually spawned so great, that it will be impossible to destroy them. In view of the experience 

 of Great Britain and France, and of the almost complete destruction of many of the once-famous 

 beds of the Chesapeake, such an opinion is without good foundation. The history of dredging in 

 France and in Great Britain is very instructive, and may be studied with much profit by those 

 who are interested in the preservation of the oyster beds of the Chesapeake Bay. The most 

 valuable records are those of the production of the beds of Cancale Bay,' on the northwest coast 

 of France. These records extend over a period of sixty-eight years, from 1800 to 1868. The 

 following extract in regard to these beds is from the report of Francis Winslow, master United 

 States Navy, made to Carlile P. Patterson, Superintendent Coast and Geodetic Survey: 



"The beds in the bay comprise an area of about 150 acres, and from 1800 to 181G produced 

 from 400,000 to 2,400,000 a year. This, however, was the period of the Napoleonic wars, and the 

 fishing was much disturbed by the presence of th'e English cruisers. During this time the beds 

 became so thickly stocked that the oysters were in some places a yard thick. After the close of 

 the war the fishing improved and the oysters were removed in larger and increasing numbers until 

 1843. From 1823 to 1848 it is supposed that the dredgers were living upon the oysters accumu- 

 lated during the period of enforced rest, from 1800 to 181G. In 1817 the number of oysters 

 produced was 5,600,000, and until 1843 there was a constant increase, the number taken in the 

 latter year being 70,000,000. In 1848 it was 60,000,000; thenceforward there was a constant 

 decrease. From 1850 to 1856 the decrease was from 50,000,000 to 18,000,000, supposed to be the 

 effect of over-dredging. From 1859 to 1868 the decrease was from 16,000,000 to 1,079,000; the 

 oysters having almost entirely disappeared from the beds, though on account of the suffering 

 condition of the inhabitants of the shores it was almost impossible to prevent it. In 1870 there 

 was a complete wreck of the bottom, which could only be remedied by a total prohibition of the 

 fisheries for several years. From the beds of the districts of Rochefort, Marennes, and island of 

 Ole'ron, on the west coast of France, there were taken in 1853-'54 10,000,000 oysters, and in 1854-'55, 

 15,000,000. On account of exhaustive fishing in 1863-'64 only 400,000 could be obtained. Ac- 

 cording to the testimony of Mr. Webber, mayor of Falmouth, England, about seven hundred men, 

 working three hundred boats, were employed in a profitable oyster fishery in the neighborhood of 

 Falmouth until 1866, when the old laws enforcing a 'close time' were repealed, under an impres- 

 sion that owing to the great productive powers of the oyster it would be impossible to remove a 

 sufficient number to prevent the restocking of the beds. Since 1866 the beds have become so 

 impoverished from excessive and continual fishing that in 1876 only forty men and forty boats 

 could find employment, and, small as the number is, they could not take more than 60 or 100 

 oysters a day, while formerly, in the same time, a boat could take from 10,000 to 12,000. Ac- 

 cording to the statement of Mr. Messuin, an oyster dealer, and secretary of an oyster company at 

 Emsworth, -England, made before the commission for the investigation of oyster fisheries in May, 

 1876, there were in the harbor of Emsworth, between the years of 1840 and 1850, so many oysters 

 that one .man in five hours could take from 24,000 to 32,000. In consequence of over-fishing, in 

 1858 scarcely ten vessels could find loads, and in 1868 a dredger in five hours could not find more 



than twenty oysters. The oyster fisheries of Jersey, in the English Channel, afforded employment 

 28 aBF 



