8 SUMMARY OF SURVEY OF OYSTER BARS OF MARYLAND. 



the green and red tinted areas on the water, the numerous small red triangles on the 

 land, and the limits of the many large-scale charts required to represent these results 

 in a practical form for future use. 



RELATION OF THE WORK OF THE GOVERNMENT TO THE MARYLAND OYSTER SURVEY. 



The Maryland Oyster Survey possessed the somewhat unusual character of having 

 in its participants three separate Government bureaus and one State commission, 1 

 all engaged in a common work leading to the conservation and the increase of the 

 supply of food in the form of oysters. 



fa priority of the Government's interest in the subject of oysters, it is so self- 

 evident that the United States Bureau of Fisheries comes first that this phase of the 

 subject requires no explanation. (IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, etc.) 3 And the connection 

 of the work of the United States Bureau of Chemistry with the sanitary conditions 

 of the oyster industry is made equally evident by the fact that it is this Bureau which 

 administers the pure-food laws of this country. (XXXV.) 2 But the relation of 

 the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey to such work is not so easy to explain. 



(xxxiv.y 



The United States Coast and Geodetic Survey includes among its many func- 

 tions not only the supplying of the chart-making needs of navigation, but also the 

 laying of the geodetic foundation for a large part of the geographic work of our 

 country; and it naturally follows that this foundation part of an "oyster survey" 

 should be laid by the institution normally performing this class of work. Just as in a 

 similar sense, it is better and more economical to have the foundation of a building 

 laid by those experienced in such work, even though in the end it is the superstructure 

 erected on the foundation which is utilized and appreciated by the public. 



Or stated in another way, it is only a question of the practical connection 

 between the work of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey in surveying and 

 charting the waters of the coasts for the purposes of navigation, and the work of a 

 so-called "oyster survey" in surveying and charting the oyster bottoms of these 

 same waters of these same coasts for the purpose of developing the oyster industry 

 of our country. 



1 U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, U. S. Bureau of Chemistry, and Maryland Shell Fish Commission. 



2 See "References," p. 19. 



