448 



GEOGRAPHICAL EEVIEW OF THE FISHERIES. 



value of these 1,450 boats (excluding canoes), there must be a yearly profit of at least several 

 hundred thousand dollars. Some of the boats are owned by packers, others by the captains, and 

 the rest are distributed among all classes of society and almost all professions and occupations. 

 When the number of these is taken into account, it will more than counterbalance any overesti- 

 mates, if such there be, in regard to the number of persons dependent upon the oyster trade of 

 the State. 



Seaford, Del., situated on the Nanticoke .River, a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay, has quite 

 an extensive packing trade, and, as all the oysters are carried from Maryland waters, it was 

 considered advisable to include in this report the statistics of the trade at that city. Mr. D. L. 

 Eawlins, of Seaford, informs me that the oyster-packing business at Seaford was started by Platt 

 & Mallory (of Fair Haven) in the fall of 1859. Hemingways, Eowe, and other eastern packers, 

 came in 1863 and 18C4. They put nearly all their oysters in small tin cans, which they shipped 

 in cases holding about 52 cans each, a good proportion being sent to Fair Haven, Conn., to be 

 reshipped from there. The business not proving as profitable as was expected, by 18G7 nearly all 

 the original packers had sold out and left, since which time a fluctuating amount of business has 

 been kept up by various successive parties with alternating failure and success. No cans are used 

 now, nearly all shipments being made in bulk. 



There are at Seaford seven oyster-packing firms, having an aggregate capital of $14,600 and 

 occupying buildings estimated to be worth $28,500. From September 1, 1879, to May 1, 1880, 

 184,500 bushels of oysters were packed raw, giving employment to 170 males and 45 females, the 

 wages of both for the season amounting to $14,230. The estimated value of the oysters, after 

 being shucked and packed, was $71,350. "When shucked oysters are shipped in bulk, the package 

 (barrel or half-barrel) is returned after being emptied, and then refilled. On this account only 

 1,400 packages, costing $1,000, were bought by Seaford packers during the season of 1879-'80. 

 About 400 persons are dependent upon the oyster trade of Seaford. The local consumption added 

 to the packing gives a total of 200,000 bushels handled at Seaford. 



General summary of the whole trade in Maryland. 



* Estimated. 



Quantity of oysters caught in Maryland during 1879-'80, 

 and the disposition made. 



* The total number of bushels packed iu the State was 7,053,492, 

 but 1,000,000 bushels came from Virginia. 



