THE OYSTER INDUSTRY OF MARYLAND. 
251 
of them during the close seasons engage also in farming or in other industries pros- 
ecuted in their native counties, which give opportunity for a few days’ employment 
at odd times. They usually return to their homes every night and their boats do not 
frequently leave the waters in which they work, the catch being either delivered at 
the adjacent marketing houses or sold to the transporting vessels. 
The men employed on the large vessels from Somerset County differ in little 
respect from those engaged in dredging, and are subject to the same regulations with 
reference to employment as provided by act of 1888. ch. 513. 
OYSTER-CULTURE IN MARYLAND. 
Historical notes . — The various modes by which the natural oyster-reefs in Mary- 
land are being utilized have been discussed, and the attempts that have been made to 
utilize the barren areas now remain to be described. Little in this line has been done 
in Maryland, and that little has been almost entirely confined to the bedding or plant- 
ing of small oysters on a few restricted areas and with much uncertainty of harvesting 
a crop. Innumerable efforts have been made to enact a system of regulations prop- 
erly authorizing and encouraging ostreiculture, but these efforts have fallen far short 
of their aim. 
The experience in Maryland in this respect has not been peculiar, for the course 
of ostreiculture has never run smooth. The very first operations in this line of which 
we have any knowledge met with opposition from persons who considered them an 
encroachment upon public customs. These operations were prosecuted iu Borne 
about two thousand years ago, and Pliny, who wrote much concerning oysters, makes 
the following reference to them : 
The first person who formed artificial oyster beds ( ostrearium vivoria) was Sergius Orata, who 
established them at Baiae in the time of L. Crassus, the orator, just before the Marsia war ( oir . B. C. 
95). This was done by him, not for the gratification of gastronomy, but of avarice, as he contrived 
to make a large income by this exercise of his ingenuity. * * * jj e was the first to adjudge the 
preeminence for delicacy of flavor to the oysters of Lake Lucrinus, for every kind of aquatic animal 
is superior in one place to what it is in another. * * * The British shores had not as yet sent their 
supplies at the time when Orata thus ennobled the Lucrine oysters. At a later period, however, it was 
thought worth while to transport oysters all the way from Brundisium, at the very extremity of Italy ; 
and in order that there might exist no rivalry between the two flavors a plan has been recently hit 
upon of feeding the oysters of Brundisium in Lake Lucrinus, famished as they must naturally be after 
so long a journey. * 
A certain Gonsidius thought, however, that Orata was encroaching too much on 
public property in his operations on the shores of the lake, and the latter was com- 
pelled to resort to the courts to defend his created industry. 
It is apparent that the early legislators of Maryland had some conception of the 
possibilities of extending the oyster industry by encouraging private enterprise in 
planting, for the legislation on this subject dates back to 1830, this being the third 
State of the Union to recognize private ownership in planted oysters. This recogni- 
tion was provided in an act dated February 16, 1830 (L. 1829-30, ch. 87). 
This act, the groundwork of all subsequent legislation in Maryland on this sub- 
ject, was in substance as follows :« Any citizen of the State was authorized under cer- 
tain regulations to appropriate in any of the bays or creeks situated within the county 
of which he was a resident an area or areas, not exceeding 1 acre in extent, for his 
exclusive use in planting or growing oysters or other shellfish, the said location to 
* Nat. Hist., vol. vi, p. 469, ed. Bolin. 
