THE OYSTER INDUSTRY OE MARYLAND. 
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by the transporters that the use of dredges was largely extended in Maryland waters, 
this being to some extent necessary for the transportation trade, when the State of 
Virginia, by act dated January 9, 1811 (Laws, Va., 1810-11, ch. xvii), interdicted the 
use of these implements within the waters of that State. Ho wholesale markets 
existed along the shores of the Chesapeake for the handling of oysters, and it is 
probable that the local consumption was very small. 
From 1820 to 1864 . — The quantity of oysters for the Northern markets, while not 
large in view of the present knowledge regarding the productiveness of these reefs, 
was sufficient to alarm the oystermen of that time lest their industry should thereby 
become totally destroyed. These apprehensions resulted, in 1820 (L. 1820-21, ch. 24), 
in the earliest enactment of the general assembly of Maryland regulating or affecting 
the oyster industry, the annual product of the State at that time scarcely exceeding, 
if it equaled, 500,000 bushels. Because of the insight it offers into the fishery as it 
then existed, the preamble to this enactment is here given : 
Whereas it is represented to the general assembly that a great number of large vessels from the 
Northern and Middle States frequent our waters for the purpose of transporting oysters to those 
States; and whereas well-grounded apprehensions are entertained of the utter extinction of oysters 
in the State, as well in consequence of the immense quantity thereof exported as the destructive 
implements used in catching them : Therefore, etc. 
This enactment prohibited, under penalty of a fine of $20 or sixty days’ impris- 
onment, the use of any implements in catching oysters within the State other than the 
ordinary tongs, and also the transportation of oysters out of the State in vessels not 
owned wholly for the preceding twelve months by a citizen of the State, or placing 
oysters on board any such vessel to be transported. Because of the great expanse of 
water territory, and the difficulty of enforcing the law without competent physical force 
upon the bay, this enactment did not fully prevent the continuation of the trade by 
Horthern vessels. 
During the next session of the general assembly an exception was made (L. 
1821-22, ch. 107) to the law of 1820, and permission was given to each citizen of the 
State of Delaware living within 3 miles of the northeast branch of the Hanticoke 
River to catch oysters from that branch of said river in quantities not exceeding 30 
bushels per day; a privilege which they enjoyed for many years and to which maybe 
due in some respects the extensive oyster-shucking trade now prosecuted at Seaford. 
This is one of the very few instances in which a State has, by legislative enactment, 
authorized non-residents to take fishery products from within its borders. 
On February 16, 1830 (L. 1829-30, ch. 87), an important enactment was made 
embodying almost the first oyster-planting law operative in America. This act author- 
ized citizens of the State to preempt, under certain regulations, an acre of ground 
naturally unproductive of oysters, for the purpose of planting and growing oysters 
and other shellfish thereon. It also granted to the owner of lands bordering a creek 
less than 100 yards in width at its mouth the exclusive right to the use of the same 
for a similar purpose. The productiveness of the natural reefs, having apparently 
continued to decrease since the enactment of 1820, this act further interdicted the 
use of tongs having more than six teeth on a side; but this restriction, so far as it 
applied to the waters of the Eastern Shore, was repealed at the same session of the 
legislature, the prohibition of their use on the Western Shore remaining until 1834. 
The act also provided that no persons other than citizens of the county or counties 
bordering on any river or bay should catch oysters within 300 yards of low- water mark 
F, C. B., 1892—14 
