18 SUMMARY OF SURVEY OF OYSTER BARS OF MARYLAND. 



COST OF AN OYSTER SURVEY. 



There is no one thing more important to either the layman or the engineer than 

 to be able to make some sort of an estimate of the final cost of any engineering work 

 being considered. And while the cost of any such work as the survey of the vast 

 oyster resources of Mar}dand is information which should be recorded, it is of value 

 chiefly for the means it furnishes for estimating the cost of future engineering works 

 of similar character. 



Adopting the figures of Dr. Caswell Grave, 1 the cost of a new oyster survey 

 based on results obtained by the Maryland Oj'ster Survey would be approximately 

 20 cents an acre for the entire area to be covered without reference to the various 

 bottoms as finally classified. The legitimate share of the State's expenses being 

 estimated at 11 cents and those of the Government at 9 cents an acre. 



In considering the cost of an oyster survey, it should not be forgotten that the 

 benefit to be derived by the Government from such operations would be not only in 

 the form of an increase in the food supply of the country, but also in the form of a 

 surveying foundation suitable for other chart and map making operations, river and 

 harbor improvements, and so forth. 



In further explanation it should be stated that all the uncertain elements of 

 weather, season, character of the topography, refinement of results demanded, 

 urgency for completion of work, and so forth, which make it so difficult to estimate 

 the cost of a geographic survey on land, are further magnified in an oyster survey. 

 Not only by waves produced by winds that would not deter work on land, but also 

 by social and political conditions which are usually associated with such work. 



It is also well to state in the way of warning that the preceding cost data when 

 used as a basis for estimating the cost of oyster survej^s in other States than Maryland 

 may give only an approximately correct estimate under certain conditions. That 

 for large open bodies of water, it might give an overestimate for good weather and 

 an underestimate for bad weather, while for small bodies of water with complicated 

 shore line and numerous small scattered oyster areas, it would probably furnish an 

 underestimate because of the increased detail of the work in proportion to the total 

 area of the survey. 



1 See p. 13. 



