VIRGINIA: OYSTER INDUSTRY. 



465 



total absence of foreigners. Among the 8,860 tongers of Virginia there are, according to the 

 statements of the county clerks; only about ten who are not Americans. These ten comprise an 

 equal number of Germans and Irish. The entire trade may be said to be virtually in the hands of 

 native Virginians, since there are probably not 300 tongers in the whole State who were not born 

 and raised there. Such is not, however, the case in the other branches of the trade. As in Mary- 

 land, all oysters caught by tongers are sold to runners, and the majority of these are owned in 

 other States and manned principally by Northern men. The life of an ordinary tonger presents 

 few attractions to induce strangers to enter this business. The work is very laborious, the remu- 

 neration only fair, and the injury to health from exposure is so great that few ever reach old age. 

 The death-rate among oystermen, as compared with other trades, is, from all that I can learn, very 

 great. 



As stated elsewhere, there are no records kept in Virginia of the number of boats engaged 

 in the trade, and it was a very difficult matter to obtain any reliable information upon this subject. 

 After traveling through the tide- water counties and gaining as near an estimate as possible, I then 

 sent out a large number of circulars to the officials, and also to one or more prominent oystermen 

 of each county, requesting their aid in the work, and desiring them to give me their estimates as 

 to the number of canoes in their respective counties. Many of these gentlemen went to consider- 

 able trouble to work up the matter, and by their aid I was enabled to correct some of my own 

 figures, and I am now able to present reliable figures, showing the number of canoes in each county 

 engaged in the oyster trade and the number of men working on them. In addition to this I have 

 succeeded in obtaining the number of schooners and sloops used for running oysters to market. It 

 is difficult to divide these latter according to the counties in which they are owned, but I think the 

 figures as given in the following table will be found very near correct. The number credited to 

 Norfolk County appears somewhat large, but the figures are furnished officially by Mr. Kusha. 

 Deuise, county clerk. The majority of these boats hailing from Norfolk County are owned in the 

 cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth. Over three-fourths of them are quite small, being under 10 tons, 

 register, while there are very few of the other fourth that will register as high as 15 tons. 



Table showing the number of canoes and larger vessels, and the number of men on each, by counties. 



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