I [6 ELEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



direct employment to thousands of men and a livelihood to the many more 

 thousands constituting their families and dependents. 



The indirect results, comprised in the building of boats, the manu- 

 facture of appliances, etc., are also large. Best of all, however, a magnifi- 

 cent and delicious food product, rich in the principal elements of nutrition, 

 is furnished to the people, and at a price which permits it to come to the 

 tables of all the people. The importance of a food supply of so wholesome 

 and appetizing a character cannot be overestimated. 



Who Are the Objectors? 



Who then, it may well be asked, are the objectors to such a benign 

 and practical system? 



There is, unfortunatelv, in some of the towns and villages upon our 

 coast an unprogressive element composed of those who prefer to reap where 

 they have not sown; who rely upon what they term their "natural right" 

 to rake where they may choose in the public waters. They deplete, but 

 do not build up! They think because it may be possible to go out upon 

 the waters for a few hours in the twenty-four (when the tide serves) and 

 dig a half peck of shellfish, that it is sufficient reason why such lands should 

 not be leased by the State to private planters. It might as well be said 

 that it is wrong for the government to grant homestead farms to settlers 

 because a few blackberries might be planted upon the lands by any who 

 cared to look for them. 



The following extract from the Fishing Gazette, under the caption — ■ 

 The Oyster Leases Should Be Upheld — is pertinent: 



"The lament of the baymen that the big oyster planters by substi- 

 tuting steam rakes and machinery for hand implements used by the fisher- 

 men tend to deprive the latter of their means of livelihood is but a repeti- 

 tion of the old cry ever \ised to block the wheels of progress. It proved 

 ineffective when used against Richard Arkwright and his power loom and 

 cotton manufacturing machinery. It was invoked in vain when Robert 

 Fulton invented the steamboat and Louis Stevenson the locomotive. It 

 will fail in the present instance because personal interests must always give 

 way to public good. Were the policy of the baymen to prevail New York 

 would eventually become dependent for its oyster supply upon the State 

 of Connecticut, where the more enlightened policy regarding the granting 

 of lands under water prevails. The public wants oysters, and to produce 



