MARYLAND: OYSTER INDUSTRY. 



439 



Statement of number of longing Ucentes issued during the past ten years, and number of men employed on boats in the season 



of 18?9-'80. 



* No records farther back than 1874. t No license required until 1874-75. 



The information contained in the above table was kindly furnished to me by the gentlemen 

 named, who are the clerks of the circuit courts of the respective counties, and from whom all 

 licenses to tong must be obtained. The law in relation thereto is : 



"Any resident of this State desiring to use any canoe or other boat in catching or taking 

 oysters, for sale, with rakes or tongs, in any of the waters of this State, shall first obtain, by 

 application to the clerk of the circuit court for the county wherein he may reside, a license therefor, 

 and such license shall have effect from the 1st day of June, in the year in which it may have been 

 obtained, to the 1st day of June next succeeding; provided that such license shall not authorize 

 the use of said canoe or boat in taking or catching oysters in any creek, cove, river, inlet, bay or 

 sound within the limits of any county other than that wherein the license shall have been granted, 

 and that the boundaries of counties bordering on navigable waters shall be strictly construed, so 

 as not to permit the residents of either county to take or catch oysters beyond the middle of the 

 dividing channel ; * * * and every applicant for such license shall pay to the clerk of the 

 court where such license may be granted, and before the issuing and delivery of the same, 

 according to the following rates, viz : For any boat measuring in length 20 feet or less, the sum of 

 $2; measuring from 20 to 25 feet, the sum of $3; measuring from 25 to 30 feet, the sum of $4; 

 and all over 30 feet, including sloops under custom-house tonnage, the sum of $5 each; and all 

 oysters taken with rakes or tongs shall be culled upon the natural beds where they are taken; the 

 amount received from tonging license to be paid by the clerk to the school commissioners for the 

 public schools of the respective counties where such license is issued; provided, the sum received 

 from white tongers shall go to white schools, and the sum from colored tongers to the colored 

 schools." 



The money arising from licenses issued to tong and to scrape during the year 1879 amounted 

 to 88,959.89, which was turned over to the boards of school commissioners of the various counties, 

 with the exception of $210 received by Worcester County for licenses, and which was used by the 

 county commissioners in purchasing "plants" to be bedded in the county waters. It may be well 

 to explain that the laws in Worcester County are different from those in the other counties in 

 respect to the disposal of license money and also as regards the issuing of license. In this county 

 the license is $1 on each man in the trade, and no account is taken of the boat. 



