MARYLAND OYSTER SURVEY . 



HISTORY. 



A summary view of the history of the oj^ster industry of Maryland is graphically 

 represented by the diagram by Grave, which faces this page. (XXXVI.) ' 



Another summary view of the same subject is presented by the chronological 

 table of publications under the head of "References," l which were selected and 

 arranged partly for that purpose. 



The diagram and the table of publications, while being in most respects a suffi- 

 cient historical statement for the purposes of this publication, do not do justice to 

 the many whose unselfish activities for the benefit of the oyster industry of Maryland 

 have not followed the line of public work leading to a corresponding amount of printed 

 records. And although these public-spirited citizens and officials are hundreds in 

 number, there stands out at the head of this line of achievement, as do Brooks (V) l 

 and Winslow (77) 1 along their respective lines, the author 2 of the Haman Oyster 

 Culture Law (XLIII, pp. 353-372) l who has most splendidly and persistently led 

 the movement which has molded the history of oyster culture in Maryland for more 

 than twenty years down to the present time. ( F77.) 1 



OBJECT. 



The immediate object of the Maryland Oyster Survey, as distinguished from the 

 hopes of the ultimate benefits to be derived from that work, having been transformed 

 into actual results, it is needless to emphasize this phase of the subject beyond refer- 

 ring to the statistical statements under the head of "Results" and to the graphic 

 representation of these same facts on the "Index Chart." 



But the ultimate object of the survey is another matter, and deals more nearly 

 with what the pioneers of the oyster-culture movement in Maryland believed, and 

 now have still more reason to believe, will be the form of the great oyster industry 

 they expect to see erected on the foundation which has been laid for that purpose. 

 (VII.) 1 



It now seems not only reasonable but probable that within the next generation 

 the citizens of Maryland will be leasing and cultivating a probable 100,000 and a pos- 

 sible 300,000 acres 3 of so-called "barren bottoms" where oysters do not now grow 

 in commercial quantities; that the more than 200,000 acres of natural oyster bars now 

 reserved for the use of the oystermen as a result of the Mar}dand Oyster Survey will 

 be so conserved and developed that they will produce, as they have done before, 

 twice the amount they now jaeld; that the oyster industry of Maryland will then be 

 based on an annual production of 20,000,000 bushels of oysters where now it is 



1 See "References," p. 19. 



' B. Howard Haman, of Baltimore, Md. 



' At the present date, May 23, 1913, some 36,000 acres have been applied for or leased. 



